The Begininng
by Sarah-Lily-Marie-Swan
Summary: Lily and James hate each others guts! Sarah and Sirius also aren't the greatest friends. Nicole and Remus seem to be the only sane ones in the group cause Ian has too much to deal with! Humor, Drama, suspense, and just a good read! first fanfic!
1. Friends from the start and not

A/N Hey everyone this is my first story EVER!!! So I will take all sorts of criticism but please no flames. If you don't like it then don't read it!

_Disclaimer – I don't own any of it cept a few characters it all goes to the wonderful J.K. Rowling!!_

The Beginning

If you were walking through Kings Cross Station in London you might see a girl with flaming red hair, magnificent green eyes, not too tall at only 5'5, and a somewhat athletic build carrying one or two trunks with her. To anyone this is a normal site. This girl is named Lily Evans, an everyday beauty but a force to be reckoned with. To any passerby she would look normal, but this particular girl is not normal…far from it actually. You see, Lily Evans is a witch and is on her way to her final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

She carefully stepped through the barrier onto platform 9& ¾ and paused for a short while. Taking in the sites of all the new first years trying to get onto the train without leaving all of what they brought with them behind and all of the other students saying hurried goodbyes to their parents and loved ones. She started to remember her first day here. Ahhh…what a long time ago!

Flashback

A very young Lily Evans, eleven at the time, was standing in between the platforms of 9 and 10 looking for platform 9 and ¾.

"I must look like I just escaped form the mental hospital just standing here like this." she thought. Just as she was about to go and see if her parents were still outside she felt a heavy blow to her mid section and was suddenly laying on the sticky train station floor. When she opened her eyes she found herself looking up into a pair of chocolate brown ones with slightly darker hair partially covering one.

"O my gosh I am such a klutz!" the eyes said. The girl got to her feet and extended her hand for Lily to grab. She gratefully took it and brushed herself off once she was on stable ground.

"I'm sorry about that but the freaks of nature my dad likes to call my brothers were trying to hug me goodbye but when its all four of them against only one of me I have to run for the hills! My name is Sarah Halman by the way. What's yours?"

"My name is Lily Evans." She replied. As they shook hands she could get a better look at Sarah. She had dark brown hair that fell to about her mid back but had bangs that covered her right eye and was a little on the thin side but not anorexic. Her eyes twinkled with mischief and had an aura of someone who has had to deal with a lot even in the short amount of time she's been alive. But her smile looked so natural like it never leaves her face. She was wearing black flipflops, denim caprices with little black and silver jewels on them with a black tank top to pull off the outfit and the only makeup she seemed to be wearing was some eyeliner and lipgloss.

As Lily was taking in her appearance Sarah was debating on asking her where platform 9&3/4 was because she saw that her trunk had the Hogwarts emblem on the side just like her own. 'O well she probably thinks I'm nuts as it is so why not?'

"Do you happen to know where platform 9&3/4 is?" she said at the same time Lily did. They both just stared at each other for a few seconds then started into a fit of giggles. "So I guess your going to Hogwarts too eh?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, I am. That is if I can ever find the platform." Sarah said as she glanced around the station. "But oh well I guess we'll just have to figure out this mystery together!" she declared as she wrapped her arm around Lily's. 'I think I see a good friend here.' Lily thought as they started to move towards a new direction.

As soon as the duo turned around they came face to face with a young Filipino girl about their age with hair so thick it looked like a ship could sink in it and eyes that say her mysteries take ages to figure out so don't even try. She was a nice size and only about 5'1, the same height as the other girls, and wearing a black denim skirt that came to her knees along with a gray long sleeved tight fitted sweater.

Next to her was a boy about 5'5, with short, choppy, spiky black hair and blue eyes so clear they looked like pools of ice. He had a fairly nice tan that covered his lanky body. He was wearing tight skater jeans with a brown Hollister Tee shirt.

"Did you guys mention Hogwarts?" the girl asked. "Umm…yeah we did actually do you know it?" Lily asked in return. The girl turned to the boy and they both started to smile at the same time. "Yeah, we know it." The boy said.

"By the way, my name is Nicole Cunnanan and this idiot over here is Ian Crawford." She said as she pointed to herself and the boy next to her. "And we're first years too but both of our parents went to Hogwarts so we know how to get there."

"Oh, well that's great cause our plan basically consisted of standing here doing nothing so this is a great improvement. I'm Sarah Halman and this is Lily Evans and we're completely and utterly confused." Lily stood there the whole time just nodding her head in agreement.

"Ha ha ha, yea well Ian will show you how to get through won't you Ian?" Nicole asked him with a fake sweet smile. He just turned to her and glared, "Yes mistress." He said through gritted teeth. He pulled his trunk in front of him and started to run full speed at the wall. Sarah almost closed her eyes for not wanting to see him fall on his ass but if she had she wouldn't have seen him go straight through the wall.

Lily and Sarah just stood there with their mouths hanging open until Nicole chuckled and closed it for them. "You'll catch flies that way." she commented as she closed their mouths with the tip of her finger.

"But, but that's j - just not logi-" "HE WENT THROUGH THE WALL!!!!" Lily started and Sarah finished. "Yes that's how you get onto the platform, why don't you try next Lily?" Nicole explained.

"Umm…okay." Lily stammered. She towed her trolley over towards the wall and then started to run. She jumped on to the back bar of the trolley so when she hit she wouldn't get her legs taken off, but instead of the jerk she was expecting she just kept rolling. She turned around in time to see Sarah come through in pretty much the same fashion. But what she didn't see was the boy with dark greasy hair and a long pointed nose.

"Ouufff!" she said as she made contact with the boy. She heard a small yelp as Sarah collided with a boy who looked to be about 5'5 and had platinum blonde hair that was so long from the back you would think he was a girl.

The boy with greasy hair pulled her up and mumbled his apologies as he started to pick up her things. "Put those down Severus! We don't help mudbloods!" the boy with platinum blonde hair said as he grabbed the greasy haired boy by the shoulder and gathered their things.

Nicole chose that moment to glide in graceful as ever. "Hey I'm sorry it took so long I was just saying goodb-" she stopped mid sentence when she saw who was in the company of her new found friends. "What are you doing here Malfoy?" she said with an icy tone.

"Well we were on our way to the train until these…things got in our way! Really Cunanan I thought better of you than to be hanging around lesser beings!" he sneered.

"You know not everyone's as low as you gits so why don't you just go on your way." A voice said from behind all of them. Instead of the high voice of Nicole it was the low voice of Ian.

"Crawford why don't you mind your own business or do you stand up for these filthy blooded cretins like your little girlfriend?" he barked back while stepping closer and closer to Ian's face.

"First off, she's not my girlfriend. Second off, stop calling them names like they're not people cause as much as you wished they weren't they are so get OVER it!! And third, is that a threat cause I'll take you anytime anywhere asshole!" He said approaching Malfoy till they were almost nose to nose (with Ian being a slightly taller nose).

"Now, now boys I think we've had enough of the mine's bigger than yours routine so why don't we all just move along now." Sarah said as she stepped in between the two.

"Stay out of this you stupid hore!" Malfoy said but as soon as last syllable left his mouth Sarah's fist replaced it. He stepped back and stood in shock that this little girl had actually punched him. Ian grabbed Sarah and held her back as she tried to take another swing at the blonde rat in front of her.

"Come on lets go!" Lily said as she started to pull Nicole and, a less excited, Sarah towards the train. Ian followed directly behind saying that he had found an empty compartment when he came through so to follow him.

"As they were all getting into the compartment they all heard through the open window Malfoy, who until then had remained frozen from shock despite the tugs from the long nosed boy named Severus, yell "OWWWWW!!!"

For a moment they all just looked at each other and then they all fell into either the seats (Lily and Nicole) or the floor (Sarah and Ian) laughing hysterically. This was when they all officially became friends!

End Flashback

As she was standing there reminiscing she didn't hear the screams of 'Lily' until it was too late and she was already swamped by a mass of black hair. "Hi to you too Nicole now can you let me go so I can breathe?" she said through the swamp of darkness.

"Oh, sorry bout that but I haven't seen you in what, three weeks and that's just three weeks too long so I ran over here to give you a hug and show you where our compartment is. Before you ask I only know where one of our other two buddies are. The retarded one is off with his new squeeze of the week and the extremely retarded one is guarding our compartment." She said in all one breath.

"Ooookkk, Nicole who gave you the coffee?" she said as she took a cautionary steep backwards. "Hahahaha, I gave it to myself so I could wake up cause the usual thought of yelling at the Marauders just wasn't cutting it today for some reason." She said with a maniac smile plastered on her small round face.

Nicole was no longer the awkward looking eleven year old she once was. She now had curves and her hair got smoother and shinier to the point where the sun would create a beautiful glint from it even at twilight. It also now reached her mid back and liked to swish it around every now and then. She would also use it as a great tool to 'accidentally' hit some one with it when it was in a ponytail by turning around to fast.

"By the way, why did you let Sarah guard the compartment? Do you not remember what happened last year?" she asked as they started towards the train. "Of course I do. I mean it's hard to forget when a first year, a moving train, gravity, and Sarah are involved. But he was alright they got him out of there quick as a jiff." Nicole said with an optimistic tone.

By now they were halfway through the train and could hear a commotion up ahead. "Oh no! You don't think?" Lily asked "No, he- I mean- they. Oh lets just go make sure she doesn't kill him!" Nicole said in a huff, all optimism gone. They made their way to the compartment they were supposed to be occupying and found the source of the up rousing.

"BLACK I SWEAR TO MERLIN YOU COME NEAR ME ONE MORE TIME AND I'LL TEACH YOU TO FLY WITHOUT A BROOM!!!" Lily and Nicole looked to each other and at the same time said, "Aww crap."

The next thing anybody new a boy about their age came crashing through the door of the compartment where the screaming had come from. "Aww…Halman! I, I think you killed me! Oh yes! This is the end of old Mr. Black!" the boy yelled from the ground through the now open doorway. Apparently the person on the inside was not impressed because he then said, "Alright in all seriousness, and I should know seriousness, I think you broke my arm! Only a kiss from a sweet maiden such as you could help it! Aww… my arm hurts!" he cried while clutching the hurt appendage.

Sarah finally stepped into the doorway but with her only being 5'3 she didn't look as tough as she wished she did. Her now shorter brown hair still came to a little higher than her mid back and her brown, eyeliner dabbed, eyes glowed with frustration. She got more toned since she was the lead chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and she also had a nice tan. She did go through a little chubby faze through 3rd and 4th year but she eventually got her curves and used them to her advantage by dating half of the male population at Hogwarts.

"Oh get over yourself ya jackass. Your actin like a puppy that got its tail stuck in a door. And by the way that spell was meant to just get you out of the room but to not harm you so your not hurt at all." She finished with a satisfied smirk on her oval shaped face. Both the other girls didn't miss how her slightly southern American accent became even more pronounced since she was mad.

At the end of her little speech the boy stopped squirming around on the floor and looked up at all of the people who had now surrounded the scene. He then smiled sheepishly as he hopped up to his feet. "What do ya know? I'm healed. Woops!" he then slipped and fell flat on his bum.

It was then that Sarah realized that the majority of the crowd was apart of the Sirius Black fan club and would jump at any chance to touch the supposed 'god' which they did just now to 'help the poor one' from his feet. Lily and Nicole could have sworn that they heard her mumble, "Those filthy cows. Can't wait to 'accidentally' fall in his pants." as she went into the compartment.

Sirius was about 6'1 and had black hair that fell gracefully into his cloudy gray eyes that have supposedly trapped every girl in Hogwarts, every girl that is except for Lily, Nicole, and Sarah. He was well tanned and muscled because he was one of the beaters also on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He had a reputation of being a date um' and dump um' kind of guy and yet for some reason every girl wanted to be his next victim. He was also apart of a group of four guys called the Marauders. The other three happened to be showing up at that particular moment.

"Oh, double crap!" Lily whispered as she silently hid behind Nicole. "What is it?" Nicole questioned. All she did in reply was point to the tall, 6'3, boy with messy brown hair, round spectacles, and a well muscled chest from being the seeker and Quidditch captain these past two years for, yet again, the Gryffindor team. This boy was none other than James Potter. The second biggest player of Hogwarts next to his best mate Sirius, a.k.a padfoot.

That was another one of the things that got on the girls nerves were their little pet names for each other. For example James was Prongs and Sirius was Padfoot. But James meant not joy and happiness but pain and aggravation for one Lily Evans because he had made it his job to ask her out every time he saw her and to prank a slytherin soon before or soon after she turns him down…again.

"Ohhh! Just stay behind me and maybe he won't notice you!" she whispered towards her shoulder. "Alright thanks! By the way I do believe I see your boyfriend over there." She said through giggles. Nicole automatically turned a faint pink color at the mention of the other Marauder Remus Lupin. "Shut up or I'll move and leave you to the hounds." Was her quick reply.

Remus was about 6'0 and was not nearly as muscled as the others because he did not play on any team. He was still tan from his long hours on the lawn reading a book or studying for an exam that wasn't for another two weeks. No one could ever figure out why he was friends' with the Marauders when they were so against homework and for pranking and he was all for homework and, not totally against but not obsessed with, pranking. His eyebrows went up into his sandy blonde hair and his deep blue eyes widened when he heard one of his best mates calling him for help from his fan club. "Moony, moony come save me please! Ahhh… REMUS use your smartness to save me!" he cried from inside a mob of girls.

"Ahhh let me think about that…no." he said with a straight face. "Yeah pads I guess your just gonna have to deal with it your self." Said a very small mouse of a boy with watery blue eyes and dull brown hair by the name of Peter Pettigrew. He was a little lump of a boy that only reached 5'10 and was the final installment of the marauder's quartet. Everyone thought that the only reason the others kept him around was because he worshiped the ground they walked on.

James grabbed Sirius's extended hand and they started running towards their own seats further down the train. "Phew! Glad he's gone." Lily sighed as she came out from her hiding space. "Glad who's gone?" came a low baritone voice from behind them. They spun around and came face to face with a 6'2 boy with icy blue eyes, spiky hair that came in front of his face 'adorably' as most girls call it. Ian came up and gave each of them a hug as he asked once again whom they were talking about.

"Just the bane of my existence." Lily said as calmly as ever. "Ah, come on Lils he's not that bad. He just…he just tries too hard whenever your involved so what ever he does ends up not exactly the way he meant it to. You really shouldn't be so hard on him." Ian said while patting her on the back. Ian is first and foremost best friends with Sarah, Lily and Nicole but is also best friends with the Marauders as well but with the two groups hating each other so much it got a little difficult to be in the middle.

"Yeah, well you would think after three years of 'trying too hard' he would come up with an attempt that worked." She said with her hands on her hips. "Yeah you would think so." he chuckled.

"Am I just gonna be ignored over here?" Nicole said impatiently. "Of course not buddy. I couldn't forget you even if I wanted to. You'd probably hurt me if I did." Ian said while ruffling her hair. She glared at his back as he walked into the compartment where a still ticked off Sarah resided. "At least he didn't call me Nicky." She mentioned but as soon as she finished Ian popped his head around the corner "Come along Nicky dear." he said in a high pitch voice.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU CRAWFORD!!"

They were now all in the compartment with Ian and Nicole not killing each other but instead playing a game of exploding snap. And Sarah was now calmly eating a chocolate frog while peaking over Lily's shoulder to read a muggle magazine she had brought. Sarah started to remember their first train ride, which seemed like a long, long time ago.

They were all laughing from hearing Malfoy's loud cry of pain a few minutes earlier. "Goodness gracious that was fun!" Sarah laughed from the floor of the compartment. "Yeah it was, nice punch by the way. Great shot." Ian said while gazing at her in respect. "Well when you grow up with four brothers around you sort of learn how to defend yourself." she replied while pumping up her arms to show off her very small muscles.

"By the way what was it that he was calling us anyways?" Lily asked. Ian and Nicole's faces automatically turned grim at the reminder of what the jerk had said. Sarah was now listening intently to the conversation.

"They called you guys…Mudbloods. (shudder) it's not exactly something you hear very often with normal people. It means filthy blood, basically someone who is muggle born like you two. There are a few people, like Malfoy and Snape, who think that only purebloods, someone who comes from an all magic family, is acceptable in the magical world." Nicole explained with a grimace.

"Me and Nicole come from two of the oldest pureblood families still in existence. But like most our families are against the dark witches and wizards like those who think horrible things about muggleborns. But there are other families like ours such as the Potters and the Weaslys who both have children going here now." Ian continued.

"So basically he was calling us bad names to our face and we didn't even know it?" Sarah questioned.

"Uhh, yeah basically." Said Ian.

"Well now I don't feel bad at all about sockin him one!" Sarah exclaimed.

"You know I suddenly don't feel bad about doing this either." Lily said as she started tickling Sarah on her sides. Apparently Sarah was extremely ticklish because she started laughing and kicking as soon as Lily's hands were on her. Soon Ian and Nicole joined in on the fun. "Ohhh! It's on!!" could be heard from the bottom of the dog pile in a loud American accent

Thus began one of many tickle wars the group would share.

Sarah was brought back to the here and now when she heard Lily yell, "Hey you guys you'll never guess what came in my Hogwarts letter this year!"

They all looked at each other and simultaneously said, "Your head girl."

"How did you know?" she asked a little disappointed at the fact that they weren't surprised.

"Well Lily it was sort of obvious. It was either you or that little Ravenclaw that never shuts up." Sarah explained.

"I wonder who the new Head boy is?" Nicole wondered aloud. "Yeah I've been wondering who it would be but its probably Remus." Lily stated with confidence.

"No actually, the Head Boy is standing right here." came a voice from inside the doorway. Lily didn't turn around because she new that voice. But that couldn't have been him it just couldn't have been. Just to see if she was the only one that heard it she opened her eyes, she didn't even remember closing them, to see the others reactions. Nicole just sat there with her mouth hanging open and Ian was laughing his butt off. "Was Dumbledore on crack when he gave you that?!" Sarah said while staring at the bright bronze badge that gleamed form his shirt.

"You know that's the same thing Pads said when he found out." James chuckled as he came in and leaned against the wall. Lily just stared at him with a blank expression, not blinking and everyone had to look hard to see if she was even breathing. "I guess we need to down to the meeting and address the prefects now." she said in a flat tone.

"Umm…yeah I guess we do." James said carefully waiting for the explosion he had been expecting. But no such thing came he followed her out of the door and as he was shutting it he turned around to see Nicole and Sarah with dumbfounded looks, most likely like the one that was on his face, and Ian with surprisingly a mischievous smile.

"What is wrong with her?" Nicole asked.

"Is everyone on crack?!" Sarah questioned still staring at the now closed door. She turned to Ian since he was unusually quiet. He usually would have said something smart like "If so I want some." Or something like that. But instead he was just rubbing his hands together while laughing quietly to himself. "I think he's finally lost it." she whispered over her shoulder to Nicole.

"I'll be back in a little bit." he called as he raced out the door and down the corridor.

Sarah just sat there wondering why everyone was leaving. She suddenly started to sniff her armpit. "What in the hell are you doing?" Nicole said with a disgusted look on her face. Sarah just looked at her and asked.

"Do I offend?"

Remus was watching what his friends have become. Scratch that they were always like this but still it saddens him to think that at least one of these two still gets decent grades.

Peter and Sirius are currently trying to see who can fart the loudest…no need to explain any more than that to show why he is so confused about their IQ's. He is currently wearing a bubblehead charm so he won't die from the toxic fumes.

"Hey guys! Hey you guys I just had- OH MY MERLIN!!! SOMEONE SEND IN SOME OZYGEN PLEASE!" Ian cried after he had busted through the door. Remus quickly cast a bubble onto his head and after he took a deep breath he calmly thanked him. "Now…I HAVE A BRILLIANT BEYOND BRILLIANT IDEA!!!"

"What is your ever so brilliant idea Ian wuddles?" questioned Sirius in his little baby voice.

"Oh just the fact that a certain Head Boy and a certain Head Girl will be spending a lot of time together this year and I think we can make the best of it!"

Soooo…how'd ya like it?!?! I already have the next chapter in my head but I wont post it unless I get some feedback! I'll keep posting even if there is a few people that read it! By the way Sarah is me and Nicole is my Beta…Nicole! Yeah I wasn't very creative! It'll get better I PROMISE!!! Now that that's over please review! peace Sarah ;-)


	2. Coming Home

_A/N Here's chapter 2 for ya! I'm not sure what my updating timings going to be like since I've never done this before but since it's summer I should up-date pretty regularly. Enough with me talking read the new addition to…The Beginning!_

_Disclaimer: If I was really J.K. Rowling do you really think that I would be on here and not out working on the next book? Hmmm…answer me truthfully. _

The prefect meeting had been over for a few minutes and James and Lily were now heading back to their compartments. James was starting to get worried. Lily hadn't said a word on the way to the meeting, hardly talked during the meeting, and now hasn't said anything on the way back. He was worried that this was the calm before the storm and he would be the poor farm house in the way. 'Maybe she's still in shock? I knew she would be upset that I'm head boy but I didn't think she'd go all zombieish on me.'

Out of nowhere Lily said, "Potter?" James jumped at the sound. "Uh, yeah Evans?"

"Umm…I've been thinking, since we're probably going to be seeing a lot of each other this year, ya know more than the usual bickering match and all, maybe we could, at least try to be…friends?"

James was stunned. He wasn't sure if he had heard her correctly. She was just starring at him. 'O crap its been a while and all I've done is stare at her like an idiot! Come on James say something!' "Lily sounds that great." She just stared at him with a confused look on her face. 'Gosh she looks cute when she's confused. Then again she looks cute all the time. Wait she's confused for a reason and that reason is you just said a bunch of words that make you sound slower than usual!!!'

"What I meant to say was, that sounds great Lily." He said while messing up his hair again. She smiled at his tense face before she said, "Yeah I think we could make it work unless…"

"Unless, what?" he questioned. She got a tough look on her face as she stared him straight in the eye and said, "Unless, you constantly ask me out, trick me, prank me, or anything else that I've yelled at you about over the past six years."

"Well, that sounds fair enough. So since we're going to be friends and all don't you think we should call each other by our first names?" he asked sheepishly, still scrunching up out of reflex to her anger bursts. But instead of blowing up in his face like he anticipated she shocked him again by saying, "That sounds like a good idea James."

'That sounded funny but still…I don't know, right.' She smiled at him and walked into her compartment leaving him standing in the hallway with his mouth hanging open making him look a lot like a nutcracker.

When she walked into her compartment she saw that Nicole was almost finished reading a book that she most likely started at the beginning of the train ride, the girl was a speed reader, and Sarah was lying on her back throwing a baseball up in the air and catching it, even though she went to Hogwarts she still liked muggle sports.

As soon as she shut the door both of their heads shot up like dogs that heard a can opener and they ran to her almost knocking her down in the process.

"Was it extremely awful?"

"Did I miss anything exciting?"

"Why are you smiling?"

"You got in a fight with him didn't you?"

"Was that James's voice I heard outside a minute ago?"

"I bet you beat his ass didn't you? Show him what real magic you could do, huh?"

"What were you two talking about?"

"Do you smell ham?"

You can probably tell who said what. Lily was able to keep up with their speed questioning after living with them for the past six years.

"Not as bad as I thought, no not really, cause of the big news I got to tell you, no I didn't, yes it was, I didn't fight him but if I did I'd win easily I'm shocked its even an option not to, stuff, and…" she stopped there because her and Nicole turned their heads at the same time and questioned, "Ham?"

"What? I smell ham and all of a sudden I'm gettin looked at as if I'm some alien!"

"Sometimes I think you are." Nicole said as she shook her head back and forth. "Anyways, what is this big news you have to tell us?"

"Oh yes do tell!" Sarah said in her bad imitation of a British accent. It was her own form of getting back at Nicole for making the alien comment since she hates when she 'tries' to speak with an accent.

Nicole glared at her as she sat down next to the smiling Lily on the seat.

"Well…I've decided that since Po-James and I are going to be spending a lot of time together this year that we…might as well be friendly with one another."

Silence swallowed the room. Nicole opened her mouth once, twice, and then she finally was about to say something when a loud cry from Sarah made them turn around to look at her. "YOU'RE GONNA WHAT?!?!?"

"Oh, come on Sarah it's not going to be that bad. I think it's great that you're giving this a try Lily!"

"Oh come on!! You're only saying that because you know that this little arrangement means that you'll get to spend more time with Remus! And if your off doing head duties with James and your off making out with Remus in a closet somewhere then that means that I will be stuck with the fat one and (shudder) Black." She finished with her eyes squinted towards what the others thought to be an imaginary person in the shape of Sirius in front of her.

"Sarah! How many times do I have to tell you, both of you, that I don't like Remus? Besides, even if I did like him, hypothetically, he wouldn't want to go out with me." she said as she looked directly at the floor.

"Ahh, of course you do buddy. Ya know, denial isn't just a river in Egypt." Sarah said with an all-knowing eye. "Yeah, we know, the marauders have probably figured it out, hell the whole school knows by now! It seems that the only people that don't know it, or at least won't admit it are you and the old boy himself." Lily stated as a matter of fact.

Nicole was yet again speechless. As she tried to say something it came out more of a, "phhffttt." 'O crap! I do like him, heck I've liked him since third year! I should just admit it…but then again I don't have to do it right now.'

"Don't change the subject. Do you really think that you and James are going to make it through the year with out going at each others throats all the time?" Nicole asked with a questioning look.

"Well we can at least try right? But as soon as he starts acting like the huge arrogant prat that we all know and hate, which shouldn't take too long I suspect, then it will be straight back to him bugging me to death and me yelling at him till he goes deaf. But until then I'm going to ask both of you to just…try and deal with the marauders. Okay?"

"Of course we will won't we Sarah?" she asked as she kicked Sarah in the foot.

"No. No, no, no, no, and NO!!! I will not deal with that…that thing for the entire year. Our last year on top of everything!" she said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Lily and Nicole looked at each other and shared a secretive smile before both turning to Sarah and giving her the best puppy dog eyes they could come up with. "Oh! Oh don't even try it! Nuh-uh I won't change my mind! You-can't-make-me!" They just got closer and closer till she was surrounded. She looked from side to side and she couldn't see anything but patheticness! "ALRIGHT! Alright I'll do it! But only cause for some reason I like you people!"

"Ahh thank you! You won't regret it…ok maybe you will but I can't promise you anything." Lily said as she hugged Sarah till she was gasping for air.

A few compartments down the marauders and Ian were having a similar conversation.

As soon as James walked into the compartment he was knocked to his feet by Sirius who had just jumped onto him screaming 'Jamie's back, Jamie's back'!

"It's about time you got back here because we want to know exactly what happened." said Ian from on the bench next to Remus and across from Peter.

"Did she scream?"

"She was kind of quiet during the meeting, was she ok?"

"Did you bring me any souvenirs?"

"To answer all of your questions no. And why would I bring you back anything? I only went to the other end of the train." He asked Sirius as he stared at him like he had two heads.

"We had to tell him that you just went on a trip since he thought you left him." Remus stated simply. "Oh, yeah like when his frog died." James said.

"Wait…he DIED?" Sirius said, as he froze mid move towards the now empty box of licorice wands. "You-you told me that he, he just went away for awhile."

The others ignored him as he quickly got over the dead frog and then got disappointed again after he found out that there was not only no more licorice wands but also no more chocolate frogs.

"You guys will never believe what Lily asked me on our way back from the prefect meeting." He said as he sat down.

All of them leaned in and waited, and waited some more. James just stared back at them. "Well?!?!" they all asked at the same time, getting impatient.

"Oh, yeah well she asked if we could be friends this year." He stated as he leaned back with a smug smile on his face with his hands behind his head.

Ian started jumping up and down mumbling things such as, 'This is brilliant, this couldn't have come at a better time.'

"What couldn't have come at a better time?" James asked with a perplexed look.

"Well, we have decided that we will help you come up with a solution to your Lily problem."

"It's a lot better than our first option and that was to just make ya get over her." Peter squeaked from the back, which made everyone remember that he was even there in the first place.

"Yes, old buddy, old pal we will not rest until the beautiful Lillian Evans and you are- is that chocolate?" Sirius asked as he dove from standing on top of the seat he had climbed up on, onto an unsuspecting peter who was eating a chocolate frog he had hid a few minutes earlier for later…apparently that later was now.

As the other boys looked at Sirius trying to get at Peter on the ground Ian and Remus looked at each other then at James and said, "We'll help you."

They formed James in on the plan that they had come up with while he was gone. Afterwards he said, "Well thank you mates. This really means a lot that you would do this for me. Thanks Remus for coming up with it. I knew that if anyone would come up with a good plan it would be you."

"Hold the phone! I came up with the plan not Remus!" Ian said from his left. "Why do you automatically think that he came up with it?"

"Oh, I'm sorry mate I just thought- well he does always come up with the ideas where we don't get caught when we're pranking." James said sheepishly.

"Yeah well, he doesn't…it's just…aw well your right." They all laughed and that was how they spent the rest of the train ride.

They soon got to the Hogsmead station and heard the familiar boom of Hagrid's voice calling all of the first years over to him to take their boat ride into Hogwarts. "Hey Hagrid my man. How've ya been?" Sarah asked as she jumped to give him a high five.

"Oh, I've been alrigh'. But 'ow bout you? I think you may 'ave gotten smaller since I last seen ya." He chuckled as he watched her struggle to reach his hand. "I'm not that short!" she chuckled as she walked off with Nicole and Lily to find a carriage.

"Oy Sirius, James, Remus, ya didn't think dat you could sneak pas' me and not say 'ello did ya?" Hagrid chuckled. "Of course not Hagrid we were just coming over to say hello." Sirius said as he shook the giants hand.

"Well we better be off to find a carriage that we can all fit in. The four of them, Ian had left earlier to find the girls, ran up to a carriage in the middle of the line.

As Ian entered the carriage Nicole wacked him on the back of the head and asked him, "And where have you been? You say you'll be back in a sec and then you just disappear!"

"I was only with the guys. You do know that I have other friends besides you guys right?"

Sarah faked an over exaggerated gasp and held her hand to her heart. "Are you saying that we just aren't good enough for you anymore? Ian…are you leaving us?" She pretended to wipe away tears.

"Oh no my darling I would never insinuate such a preposterous idea!" he said playing along while taking her hand.

"Oh, ok then." She said and just like that everything was back to normal. Lily laughed at her friend's antics. She gazed blindly out the window randomly laughing at a joke that Sarah or Ian would say and the smart remark Nicole would come back with. She was thinking about the new arrangement with James, it just got easier and easier to say she found, she thought that maybe it would work…maybe her and James actually could get along for the year.

She was broken from her train of thought by Sarah saying, "We're home." Lily looked out the other window to see the magnificent castle towering above the turn around where the carriages were stopped. 'Yes.' She thought. 'We are home.'

_A/N Sooo…how did ya like it? There's only one way for me to find out…REVIEW!!! Anyways I will be posting the next chapter not too long from now. My b-days on the 3__rd__ so I'll be a little busy but other than that I'm free! ;-)So go ahead and review now…if you can't tell it's the little blueish/purpleish button right down there._

_Sarah_


	3. First Day Back

_A/N SORRY!!! I'm so sorry it took me this long but I was dealing with a bunch of stuff my mom wanted to do on her time off. In return for waiting I tried to make this chapter a little longer. Instead of just a little I ended up making the longest so far!! Heehee! Anyways I would like to say thank you to _**butenschon1**_for my first review from someone that doesn't know me personally! Also thank you to _**amazing9218**_ for liking the story so much and the Happy B-day! On with the show!!_

_Disclaimer-Go read the Harry Potter books and that would be the real owner of this story. I just own a few of the characters like Ian, Nicole, and Sarah. _

They walked into the doors of Hogwarts greeted by the warm feel and the smell of fresh parchment and newly pressed linens. The teachers would call this the smell of learning but Lily would cal it the smell of her true home. She tried to keep her head down and out of sight of the few slytherin boys that were walking in front of her, Sarah, Nicole, and Ian.

It's not that she's scared of them, no far from it; she just didn't want to lose her Head Girl badge the first night back for blowing them up over some remark. They all went into the great hall and separated to their own house's table.

Sarah suddenly stopped in her tracks and grabbed Nicole's arm and pulled her back next to her. "Where do you think you're going Ms. Cunanan?" she hissed. "I think" she pulled her arm out of her grasp "that I am going to try and be civil with the Marauders and if I have to then so do you!" she said as she started to drag the girl towards the five boys, Ian had already sat down.

"But, but, but…they might not agree with our little arrangement and attack!" Sarah said as she begged from behind. "They won't 'attack'! You are being way too overdramatic about this…then again you're always overdramatic." She replied. Sarah couldn't come back with a reply for that so she kept quiet as she was dragged to, in her opinion, doom.

When they finally got there Nicole stood in front of Remus and said, "Hi" in her high voice. Sarah grunted her hellos and sat next to Ian who was across from Peter, with Sirius then James separating him from the stuttering Remus as he replied to the girl standing in front of him.

Nicole looked up from his gray eyes to look for lily because she just realized that she was no longer with them. 'I hope she didn't chicken out and go sit with Alice.' Alice Walker was the other girl who shared their dormitories, but she normally spends her time with her boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, or her Ravenclaw friends. 'It was her idea we be friends with them anyways. Oh there she is.' She thought as she spotted her standing inside the doorway.

Lily looked up as she entered the Great Hall. The ceiling never ceased to amaze her. No matter how many times she came through these doors she would always catch her breath by the realistic way it looks exactly like the sky above the castle.

"Lily! Hey Lily!" she heard being called to her from near the Gryffindor table. She looked down to see Nicole waving her hands at her and pointing to the seat in between her and Sarah. She made her way over and then realized who their company was. The marauders seemed not to upset about the girls sitting with them, in fact they seemed a little glad. 'Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought.'

'Yay she's coming over!' Nicole thought as she turned and sat across from her crush. 'I don't think I could of held Sarah back by myself if she got too aggravated.'

Lily came and sat down from James and in between Sarah and Nicole. She was about to say sorry for the hold up but was interrupted by Dumbledore stepping up to give his begging of the year speech. When he was done making only a few warnings in the Marauders direction he clapped his hands and mountains of food appeared before the hungrily awaiting students.

Sarah starred with a disgusted expression as Sirius shoved the entire contents of a bowl in front of him. AS he reached for his third chicken leg he saw her gaping and asked, "Wah?" Food bits flying at her got her to quickly close her mouth that had been hanging open and dropped the fork she had been holding. "You are the most disgusting person on the face of the Earth. I mean, do you even know how to eat one thing at a time?" she asked appallingly.

"Why take so long when you can speed up the process?" he asked with a cheeky grin. "Besides your not exactly a regular princess either!" he said.

"What have I done that can match swallowing a napkin thinking it was food?" she said as she slammed her hands flat down on either side of her plate. Matching her position he came back with, "It was once and an accident get over it! And for example you even admit to not washing your hair for three days MULTIPLE times!" he said in an I win you lose kind of tone.

"Well excuse me if some people don't obsess over their hair like you do! I would think you were gay if it wasn't for the fact that you date every single girl in this school! Or is that just a cover?" she said with a sly smirk on her face.

They continued to go on like that for the rest of dinner while Nicole and Remus were talking about who their next defense against the dark arts teacher, seeing as they have a new one just about every year, occasionally letting Lily have a word in. At the other end of the group Ian, Peter, and James were discussing the first pranks they would pull for their last year. "I think we should help the Slytherins with their clothing choice one day." Ian said with a hinting grin.

"Umm…I think that I should not umm, do as many umm, pranks this year." James muttered; facing his plate. That was when Remus stopped listening to Nicole, Sirius stopped yelling at Sarah, and Peter almost started to cry. "Wha-what do you mean not as many pranks this year?" Sirius asked appalled at the idea. Sarah and Nicole finally started to listen, especially after they saw Lily staring at James with her eyebrows raised and a glint of maybe respect in her eyes.

"Uhh…yeah well I mean since I'm Head boy and all now I should at least set a good example for the others right? I'm not saying that you guys should stop just to let up some and I don't think I'll be as involved. But I'll still be a true Marauder." He said as he looked up at Remus making sure he knew that he wouldn't miss a full moon because of his new status. He subtly nodded his head in James's direction to let him know he understood. Nicole noticed this little interaction and thought to think about it later.

"Yeah well I hope you remember what a real Marauder is cause I don't want to have to start looking for a new one. You know I'm not that hungry any more I'm just gonna go up to bed." Sirius said with a grimace as he got up to leave. He got halfway towards the door when he doubled back to pile a napkin full of treats then stalked back off again.

"Don't worry he'll get over it mate. Just give him some time. I bet you you'll be best mates again by morning." Ian said with a little I know something you don't know glint to his eyes. "Yeah I'm sure this is just a way he can get rid of all that anger from over the summer, it won't last long." Remus comforted while patting him on the back.

"Yeah I hope u guys are right. I don't like it when any of you guys are mad at me, especially Padfoot." James said sullenly. "Sorry to brake up this Oprah special but everyone's leaving and Dumbledore wants to see Lily and James about something." Sarah says as she gets up with Nicole to leave. "Oh, how did you know he wanted to see us?" James asked as he started towards the teacher's table where Dumbledore was still seated.

"Oh just the fact that he said he'd like to speak to the heads when he dismissed everybody." She said in a flat tone. They didn't hear her since they were already reaching the headmaster. "Bye to you too."

"What can we do for you Headmaster?" Lily asked in her too sweet voice. James had noticed that over the years she had perfected it when she was starting a conversation with a teacher.

"Oh you don't need to do anything I just need to tell you that, since you are heads this year, you will be allowed to stay in the Head housing. I'm sorry to say that it is not going to be available until next week because of a small dungbomb mishap. Until then you can stay in your regular dorms with the rest of your peers. I will call a meeting with you two to tell you when the room is finished. That is all." He finished and walked off towards his office. James could have sworn that he saw smirk on the old mans face as he left.

"Well then I guess we were right to agree to be friends since were going to be living with each other from now on." Lily said while scratching her head and started towards the common room. "Well if you think about it we have been living together since we were eleven so this shouldn't be too much of a difference." James joked.

Lily found herself laughing at his figuring. 'Whoa! When did I start thinking he was funny? Maybe I'm starting to take this whole 'be friends' concept a little too far.'

'Wow! She actually laughed and looks like she's having fun! I wonder if she's just pulling this whole lets be friends thing as a joke of her own to make up for all the crap I put her through over the years. No, Lily isn't that mean she's too good a person to do that. I hope this plan the guys came up with will work. It has so far, just let it keep going.' James thought as they reached the portrait of the fat lady.

"Polyjuice." Lily said and then chuckled again, against her will she kept telling herself, as he bowed to let her pass first. They both stopped at the bottom of the stairs each leaning on their own railing. "Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Lily said. Surprisingly she felt a little saddened that they had to separate. She felt like she wanted to talk to him for the rest of the night. Little did she know; he felt the same way. "Yeah, I guess so. Goodnight Lily." She willed herself not to smile at the fact he used her first name. "Goodnight James." She said and he didn't even try not to smile when she said his.

"Ugh! What could be taken her so long?" Sarah said for the umpteenth time since they had arrived there. The first two had been as soon as they left the Great Hall doors. "She'll be here in a minute just relax." Nicole said as she leaned against the wall next to the door.

"You've said that a million times already! I just want to go ahead and do our…"she stopped pacing and stopped talking at the same moment and started to get a far off look in her eyes. "Are you ok?" Alice had asked from her bed. Nicole had leaned forward ready to catch her if she falls. "I just realized that this is going to be the last time that we do our first night in tradition." She said in a faint voice. Nicole had never thought of it like that. "Yeah I guess it is." Sarah came over and leaned against the door and bent forward to rest her elbows on her knees but then Lily decided to come through the door and made Sarah fall flat on her face.

"Ha, ha! See that's why I leaned next to the door."

"Oh yes Nicole, you're a regular genius! Please have patience with us lesser beings." Sarah said slightly muffled by the floor. She pulled herself up and then turned on Lily and asked, "What took you so long? I was about to go grab you myself."

"Oh, I'm sorry I completely forgot you guys were waiting. But Dumbledore wanted to tell us that me and James would get to have our. own. quarters this year!!!! Do you know what that means?" she asked excitedly. Nicole and Sarah looked at each other then her and said, "What?" She sighed and said, "That means we can have a common room all to our selves with out worrying about Sarah blowing up one of the first years!"

"Yeah that's great and all but doesn't that mean that…well that your not going to be over here with us?" Sarah asked sheepishly. She was the baby of the group but you'd never know it except a few times when she's really worried about something, like now.

"Ohhh…you guys don't worry about us not spending time together! I can still spend the night over here sometimes and you all could come over to my room whenever you want to." She ran over to the girls and they all came together for one big group hug.

"So, now that all of this news is taken care of how about we do our special tradition." Sarah said as she quickly ran in front of her bed. "Alright, alright. We can see you've waited long enough so lets go ahead and do it." Nicole said as she and Lily each made their way to their own beds. "We haven't even stepped within two feet of either of them have we Alice?" Sarah asked in a voice like a child trying to get acceptance form their parents. "Yes they were very good." She chuckled.

"Alright, Sarah since you want to do this so bad why don't you say it?" Lily said. "Ok! (Clears her throat) ARE YOU READY TO TUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE!!!!!!" she bellowed as she climbed onto her bed and got in a crouching position. "Hell Yeah!" Nicole screamed from the same position on her bed.

"Lily the charm please. We don't want Sarah to fall again like last year."

"Oh yeah! That was hilarious!" Lily laughed as she took out her wand and muttered. "Bridgendio." (bridge-end-e-o – I made it up. It's supposed to be a bridge that you can use so you won't fall through open areas. But only used for small spaces.) "Oh my gosh! It was one time and if someone had just put up the spell like they were supposed to then it wouldn't have happened! Now, are we all ready this time?" Sarah said from her bed trying, and failing, to hide the smile from the hilarious memory. The other two nodded quickly.

"Alright then…TUMBLE!!!!" The three girls started to jump from one bed to the other laughing and screaming when ever they would get too close to the edge. They kept doing this until all the beds were properly disheveled and all pillows had landed on the floor. Each girl tiredly plopped onto their beds and laughed until Lily looked at a clock and said, "We should be getting to sleep. We got a big day tomorrow." Murmurs of 'yeah' could be heard through the room. Sarah put out the candles and after they all said goodnight it became very quite and peaceful…that is until Nicole's snoring was heard and then it was back into laughing between Lily and Sarah.

When James entered his dormitory Sirius walked past him and said, "How was the walk with Lilykins? Did she say anything about being impressed by my acting ability? By the way you owe me more food since I had to leave early to help you seem respectable." He finished with a point of his finger at him.

The boy s had planned on the train that he should lighten up on his pranking and messing around with the Slytherins and he should let Lily know about it 'the same time' the others found out. With Sirius acting like he was upset that he would choose his new responsibility over his friends, he was supposed to seem more responsible. He didn't like the idea of lying to Lily but they convinced him it wasn't really lying; just telling information at a time that might have a different affect on her than another. He was just confused by their reasoning so he didn't push it too much.

"Alright Padfoot I'll get you food but you really did do a good job out there tonight." James said as he fell onto his plump burgundy and gold comforter.

"Yeah Pads I thought you really meant it for a while there. That is until I remembered that I had come up with it in the first place so I just felt stupid." Ian laughed form his bed across the room. Remus came out of the bathroom and said, "Yeah who knew Sirius could be so… serious?" They all laughed until Remus asked James what Dumbledore had wanted from him and Lily.

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Dumbledore says that me and Lily get to have our own dorms since we're heads." James said excitedly and he sat up straighter with every word.

"Do you guys know what this means?" Remus asked from sitting next to his trunk. Four pairs of eyes just stared at him. "This means that we can have more privacy when we plan our pranks!" 'And if have to talk about the full moon.' He thought to himself. "True. And we won't have to worry about Sirius using little kiddies as his practice dummies for his new pranking inventions." Ian said.

They all laughed about all the possibilities they could use the new privacy for. All were considered except for a few of Sirius's, which were just too wrong to even give a second thought.

The next morning in the Great Hall Lily and Nicole were talking about their upcoming schedules and how soon they should get started on their homework that they were bound to get even on the first day. Remus and James were on the same subject but were guessing more along the lines of how many classes they would have with Slytherins. Ian was listening closely but was distracted when ever he had to catch Sarah's head from falling into the food in front of her since her sleeping head was quite comfortably resting on his shoulder.

Sirius kept going in and out of consciousness. When he was awake he would manage to get some food into his mouth before going right back to sleep. During one of his awake moments he saw Sarah's head on Ian's shoulder and a look of jealousy appeared for a second before he got a hold on himself and remembered that Ian thought of the girls like sisters so nothing to worry about.

Professor McGonagall came down the table passing out scheduales to all of the students. "Aww man we got History of Magic with Ravenclaw, Potions with Slytherin, Herbology with Hufflepuff, DADA with Slytherins, Transfiguratoin with you guessed it Sytherin, then I got Divination with Hufflepuff." Sarah said as she read her scheduale with a look of disgust.

"I guess we all have the same classes except for…Remus, James, Lily and I have Astronomy with Hufflepuff last and Ian, Peter and Sirius all have Care of Magical Creatures last." Nicole said as she looked over everyone's sheets.

"Aww man! Does this mean I got Beckman all to myself?!" Sarah whined referring to her Divination professor. "Yup. Why did you sign up to take that old crackpot's class anyway if you hate her so much?" James asked as he spread butter onto his fourth piece of toast.

"I always do really well in that class and apparently I do too well considering Beckman always trys to get me to answer a question or do a prediction wrong but I'm always right. She gets a little upset that a student is upstaging her." Sarah said with a proud yet evil glint in her eyes.

"Oh. That would explain it then." Peter said. "We should get going or were gonna be late for nap time. Wouldn't that just be dreadful?" Ian asked with a sarcastic smile.

History of Magic went by much longer than Sarah remebered. When she looked around she saw that Sirius was already asleep, James and Peter were passing notes. Nicole was doodeling while her quick quotes quill was busying copying down her notes, she was also punching Ian every now and then to make sure he didn't fall asleep. Lily and Remus were the only ones that were actually tring to understand what boring old Binns was reading from a book. 'Figures the all O students would be acting like he was telling them the secret of life.I personally think old Binns should be tossed in the bin. Oww! What the heck…what is this?' she thought as a piece of folded parchment hit her in the head.

When she opened it up it read, 'What are you doing?' She looked behind her to see that Sirius was now up and was the one who threw her the note. 'Why does he honestly think I would reply to this? I don't talk to him in person let alone on paper. Well, I am bored so…ahh, what the heck?' She quickly wrote down her reply and tossed it over her shoulder.

'Oh my Merlin she actually replied! I was just bored but I guess she must be too if she actually bothered to talk, actually write, to me. He quickly opened it up to read, 'Same thing you are. Gosh you write really fancy…why? It doesn't seem very youish.' He loved how here messy scribble showed her personality. Now that he thought about it, if someone was to just look at his writing they would think he was some fancy preppy, he found it kind of ironic.

Try growing up with a family who lives like some finishing school. Yours fits you nice. Haha not in a bad way. I'm surprised that you actually wrote back. I was pretty sure you would burn it. He had written back. She found herself smiling at the note. 'This doesn't seem liket the normal annoying Black that pushed me out the second story window in third year. No Sarah! Don't even think about turning down a six year hating streak!' Her quill flew across the page as she wrote her part.

Well don't read into it I still can't stand you I'm just bored. Besides, do you think I would just give up a six year hating streak? He was a little stung by her words. He really did think that they might have made some progress, but he guessed not. He wasn't really surprised though. He really did like her and he hoped that somewhere deep down she liked him too. At first he had just wanted to tease her, since he got on her nerves so much but that changed last year. He had seen her out with some seventh year Hufflepuff. He had seen her out with guys before but for some reason he felt jealous. It was then that he started to notice different things that she did that he thought were cute or funny. But she obviously didn't have that same realazation cause she still hated his guts.

The bell rung signaling the end of class. All of the gang got up and headed towrds the dungeons for potions.

When they got to the dungeons they waited outside for their professor Ms. Blanc to get her evil butt down there. They were all just standing around making a joke how Sarah almost fell off the moving stairs and Nicole had to catch her when a voice that rolled off the tounge like grease said, "Well if it isn't the mudblood duo and their dumb protectors.

"Well I guess your sorely mistaken Malfoy because if anyone needs protection it's gonna be you when I'm throught with you." Sarah said as she made to go for his face. But Lily and Nicole grabbed her by the shoulders before she even took two steps. Ian and Remus struggled to hold back James and Sirius as they tried to reach for their wands to hex the bastard to the next century.

"Why don't you just go take you and your pathetic excuse of friends back into whatever hole you crawled out of Malfoy?" Sirius spat out as he pushed Remus's hands off of him. "Touchy, touchy! I was just making conversation." He drawled as he stood his ground.

"Alright everyone get inside before I'm forced to take away points or worse." An icy cold voice said flatly as a woman dressed in long, tight black robes and dark brown hair, the same shade as Sarah's, with natural black highlights in it walked past the group of quarreling students. They all filed into the room but stopped in the middel isle when she instructed them to wait for them to be assigned their partners. They all groaned simultaniously when she smirked wickedly.

"As you all know from last year I do not tolerate favoritisim so to help out this whole house rivalry problem by having each of you be partnered with a person from the opposite house. They are as follows, Walker&Goyle, Evans&Snape, (loud cursing from a certain red head and a certain messy haired boy at that one) Lupin&Bellatrix Black, (Remus scoweled at her and she returned it eye for eye, Nicole was not too happy) Black&Narcissa Black (the two cousins glared at each other but decided that it wasn't as bad as other possibilities, but Malfoy tought it was the worst), Cunnanan&Avery, (Remus's face darkened) Halman&Malfoy(the whole grouped gasped at that one, Sarah almost screamed while Malfoy just chuckled, some could swear they heard Sirius growl), Potter&Lestrange(James thought that Sarah and Lily were worse off than he was but he was still not happy with it)." A few more names were called until "…and finally Crawford&Silver." Ian looked up at Alyson standing in front of him. She had long blonde hair that reached down to her lower back, brown eyes that went from black then back to their wooden color in the blink of an eye. She was only about 5'6 so he towered over her easily. Her skin was very pale but in a beautiful porcelin doll kind of way. She was the popular girl that knew the whole school. She still stayed away from Gryffindors but wasn't as opposed to them as others in her house. She was extremly pretty and had been asked out by every guy in her house, and all the others as a matter of fact. Ian had never really noticed her as a real person, just a name that happened to be involved in every school project or activity there was.

He followed her to their seats in the far right of the class as Blanc started to write out a potion they did last year to refresh their memories. After a while he tore his eyes off of the blonde who seemed to float when she walked to see how the others were doing with their projects and partners. James was pretty much doing all of his and Rodoulphous's _(I don't know if that is how you spell it)_ potion and it didn't look as good as it could. Remus was arguing with Bellatrix on how to stir it when it suddenly busted a bubble right into her face.

Lily and Snape surprisingly were doing quite well in working together. They weren't going out of their way to talk to each other but at least they were making progress. Nicole looked like she was about to lose it with Avery but was just barely able to keep her cool with the big oaf when he accidently dropped an entire vile of dragon claw into the cauldron. Sirius and Narcissa were stone stiff as they did their work but were both eyeing the pair infront of them. That pair would be Malfoy and Sarah. Malfoy kept muttering how she was a no good whore and more and more evil things into her ear as she stirred. When she finally couldn't keep up her façade of not caring anymore she accidently spilled their potion right into his lap so it looked like he peed himself. "Really now, you should be more careful. Make a bathroom stop before coming to class." She snickered.

Ian finally turned back around to see Alyson almost finished with their project. When he tried to reach over to grab an ingredient that needed to be added she reached for it at the same time and their hands touched. They both pulled back quickly when they felt sparks through their fingertips. Alyson was the first to regain her mind and said, "Umm…I guess we haven't actually introduced ourselves. I'm Alyson Silver." She said as she stuck out her hand for him to shake. "And I'm Ian Austin Crawford at your service." He said as he lightly took her hand and kissed it.

She tried to hold in her laugh but a few cuckles escaped. "Does that actually work for you?" she asked in between fits. He looked confused and asked, "What do you mean does it work for me? Does what work for me?"

"The whole kiss a girls hand thing to make them think you're charming. I just wanted to know cause it was the cheesyest thing I've ever seen. Haha!!" she said. Ian just frowned and looked taken aback by her boldness. 'That always works. Why isn't it working. It wasn't that cheesy was it?'

"Uhh, actually it usually does. But I guess I'm just losing my touch." He smiled sheepishly at her. "Yeah well I don't think you're a complete lost cause. But don't go getting any ideas. I'm still not a big Gryffindor fan but I don't thtink your too bad." She said as she slowly stirred the cauldron, taking glances at him every now and then.

"Alright then we'll just be partners okay?" he asked. "Sure just partners." They shook hands and felt that same spark again but both ignored it and left the class with a whole lot of stuff to sort out in their minds.

At dinner that night Sarah was no where to be found and everyone else was talking about their last classes that was the only class that not all of them was in. "Astronomy was pretty cool we didn't really do anything." Nicole said as she pilled on some mash potatoes onto her plate.

"Hey does anyone know where Sarah is? She would be over here as soon as class got out so she wouldn't have to deal with Beckman. Where could she be?" Lily asked as she looked towards the doors as if she would come throught them any second.

"I have no idea but you're right it is strange that she's not back yet." Ian agreed.

A few minutes later Sarah came bursting into the Great Hall with a pile of parchment being wrangled in her hands as she was squeazing it to death. "I CAN:T STAND THAT BITCH!" she said as soon as she sat down, automatically going for anything chocolate.

"What did she do now?" Nicole asked concerned for her friends health. "All we were doing was trying to get a reading out of crystal balls when she thought she'd be a smartass and ask me if I was actually able to get a reading. Oh did I!! I said that I saw that there would be an accident very soon and it would involve books. She said that I was proposturous and that I was just making it up because she couldn't see anything like it! Well, right before the bell rang she tried to get a book from a big stack of them and they all fell on her." She said in a rush.

"What happened then?" Lily asked since she was the only one not laughing so hard that they couldn't talk. "She said that I did it just to prove myself right. When I pointed out that I wasn't even on that side of the room and Alice had my wand for a certain type of personality reading, I couldn't have done it she made me stay back and pick them all up and organize them!"

"Beckman-0, Halman-1! Way to go!" Sirius said as he dug into his green beans. They all laughed at each other for the rest of the night forgetting about all of the problems that came with their first day of school.

A/N: I hope you all liked it! I think that I'm going to start making little polls at the end like who's your favorite character, fav. Couple, etc…etc... But for now all I'm asking you is to review!! Thanks!

_Sarah_


	4. Cool kids, animals, and new rooms

A/N Alright kids lets get this show on the road! I tried to be a little funnier in this one but I'm not sure if it worked out the way I saw it in my head. So tell me in a review okay?

_Disclaimer: Just look at my other ones and you should get the general idea._

It had been a week into the school year and the group was slowly starting to get used to being around each other for the majority of the time. Remus and Nicole were actually talking more often without the awkward, blushing silences. Not that they didn't still occur just not as frequently as they used to which pleased both of them immensely.

Sarah and Sirius were still at each other's throats most of the time. They couldn't go five hours without getting into a fight. (Remus made it his duty to time them.) Both of them started to come about the fights differently than they used to. Before it was about anything and everything, but now it was more about both of their dates than other things.

Peter was still more of a spectator than apart of the group. James was starting to notice that he was trying less and less to be apart of their conversations and that he was going off on his own more than usual. He just pushed it to the back of his mind since he was more occupied with working well with a certain red head than that of his friend's solo ventures.

One of the times he had to be most careful of what he said was when they were alone on their weekly patrols of the castle. One of these times happened to be now. He was so tempted to ask her out but had to keep reminding himself that if he did all progress with her would be lost. 'Don't be a pompous jerk! Don't be a pompous jerk!' he kept mentally yelling at himself as the silence between them grew.

"Umm…how do you like being back at school so far?" he asked as a feeble attempt to break the ice. 'There that sounded good. I should get a cookie.' She looked up from the string on her jacket that she had been fascinated with and said, "Oh it feels more like coming home than it does school." as she looked around the corridor they were currently in.

"I know how ya feel. No matter how much I love my parents I can't help but feel much more comfortable here in this big old castle than in their house."

Lily was about to agree with him when they started to hear banging noises from around the corner. They simultaneously whipped out their wands and ran toward the noise. When they turned the corner Lily got a disgusted look on her face and James just put his head in his hand and chuckled.

Sirius and some 6th year Hufflepuff were snogging like there was no tomorrow and didn't even seem to notice their audience or that their feet were hitting the suit of armor next to them. James cleared his throat once, twice, and then he eventually just yelled "Padfoot!" That got his attention.

Sirius jumped a foot in the air and landed with a thump onto the cold hard ground. The girl froze and just stared at the two heads like they were her parents who just caught her. Lily said, "I think its time for you to be heading back to your dorm. Lights out was half an hour ago. Now scoot." The girl wasted no time in bolting toward her common room on the other side of the castle.

"Sirius what were you thinking mate? Can't you just wait two days till you find a new snogging buddy?" James said in a joking tone with his arms crossed in front of him. "I'm a weak man Prongs. They are all so tempting." He said in a pained voice as James helped him up from the floor.

"Oh my gosh! Why do you talk about girls as if they were some type of food? Sometimes I really just don't understand you! This is a warning Sirius. If we catch you out after curfew again you'll get a detention." she said with a strict authority.

"Geesh Lily. Will you lighten up? I didn't mean anything by it. Honest. I'll just go back up to the common room then." He replied with a grimace.

After he had gone down the hall James turned to her and said, "You were a little harsh on him."

"Harsh? He's lucky he didn't get a detention right then and there. The only reason I let up was cause he's your friend." As soon as she said that last part she froze. 'Why did I say that? That wasn't really the reason I passed on him was it?'

"Why would you do that just cause he's my friend? No offense but I wouldn't think that, that would influence your decision much." He asked in a confused manner.

"Well it doesn't. I just thought I would be nice! Geesh! Don't you think that I can do something nice like that?" she said quickly in hope that he didn't catch the nervous tone in her voice.

They continued the rest of the patrol in silence. They only talked when they were telling each other a brief goodnight as they went up to bed.

The next day in potions they were all working with their partners, some more efficiently than others, and were all trying to make some potion that was way to hard to pronounce and was supposed to make the drinker invisible for a short amount of time.

Ian found himself becoming more and more infatuated with Alyson. He caught himself sneaking glances at her not only during class but in the Great Hall too. 'Why do I like her? She's a Slytherin for crying out loud. But she's so nice and bubbly. She's not like the other Slytherin girls who only care about how many people they can depress in one day.'

"Are you ok?" she asked with a slight giggle at his dazed expression.

"Oh umm yeah! I'm fine just…never mind." He said as he looked back at the bubbling white brew. "No. What is it? Come on tell me!" she said while dicing up the squid tentacles.

"I just couldn't help but think how pretty you look and I guess I sort of got a little out of it." He looked over at her to see her blushing, which just made her look even cuter.

"Well I think someone's a little desperate."

"Why would you think that?" he asked in genuine curiosity. "Well why would you say I'm cute when I'm clearly not?" she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

He stared at her with shock covering his entire face. "You can not seriously think that? Do you own a mirror? You're one of the prettiest girls in school. You must have guys asking you out left and right." She shook her head with a slight smirk on her face, as she stood strong with her opinion. "Well then I guess I'm just going to have to prove it to you. How does this Friday sound? We can go down to the kitchens and have our own little dinner."

"I don't think so." He looked surprised and then confused. "Do you have other plans?"

She put the vile of potion on Professor Blanc's desk then grabbed her bag and said, "No." Then disappeared with a secret smirk on her face as she left him speechless.

That night they were all situated around the fire when there was a tap at the window. The tapping was coming from an owl. Sirius got the letter and handed it to James since it was addressed to him and Lily.

"Hey Lily the Headmaster wants to see us in his office now."

They reached the spiraling staircase and quickly ascended after Lily muttered licorice wands. When they got to the door they didn't even have to knock before the door was opened to reveal Dumbledore sitting behind his massive desk.

"Come, come it is already getting late and I do not want to keep you too long." He said as two plump armchairs appeared before the desk.

"I just wanted to tell you that your new accommodations are ready and to apologize for the delay." He started sounding almost like a hotel clerk. "You will be able to have three other people stay with you each. Now, I know that the two of you have not gotten along these past few years and since you two will be spending a lot of time together I would like the two of you to behave yourselves and to try not to destroy the furniture too badly if it comes to wands." The last part he said in a teasing tone.

"Lily and I have already decided that it would be best if we put our past differences behind us and try to be at least civil with each other Sir." James replied. 'Wow he actually sounded like he has a brain and uses it! I'm impressed.'

"Well that is good news. You may be dismissed. Oh before you go the room is in the Gryffindor Tower. It is just inside the walkway between the fat lady and the common room. Just pull the torch on the wall and you will be on your way."

"Thank you Headmaster." They chorused and ran back to the tower to tell their friends the good news.

When they did get there they didn't find their friends in the same situation as when they had left. Sarah and Sirius were now standing up and where trying to stare each other down and surprisingly Sarah was winning even though she was shorter and not as intimidating. Remus and Nicole were in a corner sitting extremely close and looking at a book in Remus's hands.

"Guys. Guuuuyyyyysss? GUYS!!!!!" Lily yelled at all of them to get their attention. Sarah and Sirius turned and hit heads and letting out a groan and sunk back onto the couch. Remus and Nicole managed to look up long enough to notice that they had come back.

"What is it? Couldn't you see that we were all a little bit busy? I mean he was about to crack!" Sarah said looking mad.

"No I wasn't! You were I could see it! You were about to cave because of my good looks!"

'Ha he wishes! I would never in my entire existence fall for his extremely good hair, or his lips that are so soft looking, or those eyes…my gosh those eyes their so deep! WAIT!! Sarah get a hold of yourself here. (Mental slap) You can't be thinking things like that! He must be using some kind of hypnotism on you. Yeah that's it! He hypnotized you to think that he was even remotely good looking. Aww…who are you kidding he does look kind of cute especially when he's mad.' She eventually turned around and faced Lily and James. "So are you going to tell us what's so exciting or not?"

"Come on and we'll show you." Lily said as she grabbed the two girls and dragged them towards the walkway with everyone else following. Ian was sitting by the window where he was quietly sleeping until Sirius grabbed him and drug him by the collar toward the rest of the group. He stopped however when he realized that Ian didn't yell at him or even move for that matter.

He looked down at him and saw him still asleep. "Let me go meany monster! I don't want any spinach." He had said this loud enough for the rest of them to stop and look at him.

Sirius looked at the rest of them and then back down with a smile that only meant a plan and asked, "Why not Ian?" Sarah ran up next to him and pretended to be his mom and said, "You have to eat your spinach or you can not go out for Quidditch today young man."

Everyone was cracking up at this point. "But mommy I want to be a cool kid and eat my ice cream in the bathroom."

Sirius and Sarah looked at each other and silently agreed to their plan with a smirk that was just too evil to be described. "Well little boy if you eat ice cream in the bathroom then you'll get stuck to the seat!" Sirius said in a low gruff voice like the 'monster.'

"NO!!! My tushy would hurt too bad cause of the super glue." He said now squirming around under Sirius's grasp. "Mommy save me from the butt gluer!!" he yelled as he grabbed onto Sarah's legs.

She almost fell down from his grip but managed to stay upright. "I'm sorry my little Ian bean but I'm going swimming."

"But he's going to eat me!!"

"No I'm not, actually why don't you join her?" Sirius said as he and Sarah sprayed him with water until he sat up screaming like a little girl.

He looked around him and saw James, Remus, Lily, and Peter rolling on the floor laughing and looked up to see Sirius and Sarah standing over him. "What's so funny guys?" That just made them all laugh harder.

"Oh nothing just us being cool kids." Sarah managed to get out before collapsing, which was kind of difficult seeing how Ian hadn't let go yet. "Yeah we just decided that we should go for a swim and have some spinach." Sirius said as he fell down next to Sarah.

"You guys are seriously mental you do know that right?" he commented as he shook his thoroughly drenched head. "And why am I all wet?"

"Why don't you just look at this buddy?" Nicole said as she came over to him with a muggle video camera that she had summoned after the first weird statement.

As he watched the video his face got paler and paler. He looked at Sarah and Sirius who were just sitting on the ground looking innocent as ever. "You two! You guys are the most devious schemers I've ever met." He said through slits where his eyes should be.

"Oh well thank you Ian bean." Sarah said as she started to laugh again. Ian got up lightning fast and chased her till she hid behind Nicole. "Now, now children do you two need to be separated?" Nicole asked pretending to be the two's mom.

"That won't be a problem when I'm finished with her." Ian said while trying to get around her. "Oh come now mate. You've got to admit that was pretty funny!" Sirius said as he clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh no! It's the evil monster come back to get me! Save me! Saaaave me!" They all laughed at his cries of so-called pain and then Remus remembered the whole point of this little mess.

"What was it you two wanted to show us any ways?"

"Oh yeah that! Come with us."

The group of still laughing teens followed Lily and James towards the walkway and stopped at the one torch that wasn't lit. James reached out and pulled it down. Then they were all confused when he and Lily, who was standing next to him, disappeared behind the wall.

"O my Merlin! The wall ate Prongs and Lily Bean!!" Sirius exclaimed as he started to pound on the wall. "Let my friends go you sick wall bastard!!!"

Nicole turned to Remus and said, "I feel sorry for you."

"Why?"

"Because you have to share a room with this guy who doesn't realize that he could just pull the torch himself." She smiled as he laughed quietly at her. 'Gosh he is SO cute when he does that! Maybe there is a chance he likes me.'

Eventually Sirius got tired and fell to the floor while muttering friends, and wall and…stuff. Sarah just rolled her eyes and pulled the torch down herself and that sent both her and Sirius flying through the wall. Ian got all excited at the idea to 'go through a wall' that he ran straight for it…but unfortunately for him he forgot to pull the torch so he just hit the wall with a loud bang.

"Nicole! The wall hit me!!!"

She came over to the supposedly helpless boy and pulled him up. (with Remus's help of course) Then all three of them joined their friends on the other side.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Lily questioned after everyone had joined them and was all sitting/standing in front of a portrait of nighttime scene.

"Well maybe we could help you if you just told us where we are and what we're doing here." Nicole grumbled as she pushed herself over to Lily and James.

"This is supposed to be where our Head dorm is but if no one is here to take the password then how are we supposed to-" she got cut off by a growling coming from inside the painting.

"What was that?" Sarah asked as she went closer to it. Then a wolf came running out of the forest and came straight to Sarah's face. "Well hello there. Do we give you the password?"

"Yup. That's my job. Yup! Yup! Yup!" the wolf was now bouncing around like it had a little too many dog treats. Lily and Nicole shared a knowing look. Lily came closer to the painting and a leopard came bounding out of a tree. Nicole joined her and a falcon came soaring out of the sky. The three girls all got a suspicious and scared look on their face when they turned around to see if the Marauders and Ian had any idea of what this meant.

When they saw that all of them had a look of surprise and slight confusion on their faces they decided that their secret was safe.

When all of the others came up to the painting a dog for Sirius, another wolf for Remus, a stag for James, and a fox for Ian came running out of their hiding places.

"Well, do we have a password?" Ian asked the others.

"You have to think of one yourselves." The falcon drawled.

"Okay then. Lily you got any suggestions?" she sat there and pondered James's question and came up with "friendship."

They all laughed at her choice of password and then Remus's wolf, Sarah's wolf, and Sirius's dog started to howl and the painting swung back to reveal a common room twice the size of the one for Gryffindor. There was a roaring fireplace that was about the length of Lily if she laid down, one extremely long couch that matched the length of the fireplace and was parallel to it. There were two large plush armchairs on either end of the coffee table that was in between the couch and the fireplace.

There was a window on the wall opposite the entrance with a small two-seater table below it. There was a large bookcase filled with different books from Quidditch to any type of plant ever known. There were two staircases, one that swerves to the right and one that swerves to the left.

"Holy Crap!" Sarah said since everyone else still had his or her mouths hanging open. "We are SOOOO going to be spending a lot more time together in here."

"Well I would think you would since you're aloud to live here with us if you want." James said as came out of his stupor.

"Really?" they all yelled at once.

"Yeah really."

"Well let the party begin!" Sirius yelled as he jumped up and down.

"I think that we should wait till tomorrow to have a big blow out Pads. For right now I personally just want to go to sleep." Remus said as he made his way up the staircase to the left that said boys.

"Ahh Moony! You're no fun!" Sirius yelled as he made his way up behind him.

"Come on Ian. I think we should go up and get the good beds before Sirius jumps on all of them." They both disappeared after they said goodnight to the girls.

When the girls got to the top of the staircase they opened the door and gasped for the second time that night. On one third of the room there was a big green bed with tons of textbooks and any type of working material possible. In the middle there was a big bed covered in dark midnight blue with bookshelves upon bookshelves of books filled with fictional stories of romance and dark creatures. To the right there was a bed covered in black with cases of muggle music with a rather large cd player. _**(I know there aren't any muggle working objects at Hogwarts but it's the Head Dorm I think we can make an exception.)**_ At the very back there were three curtains, one to match each bed.

Each girl ran to one of the beds. Lily automatically started to go through all of the different shades of parchment she had. Nicole started to read one of the first books she grabbed when she jumped onto her big blue comforter. Sarah was going through all of the cds with almost superhuman speed. Lily decided to check out what was behind the green curtain and found a walk in closet filled with her school uniforms, clothes she brought to school and some others that she didn't recognize but still loved.

"Lily I am defiantly borrowing your clothes." Sarah said as she was flipping through one of Nicole's books.

"Why don't you just check yours out and see if you'll need to." Lily said smartly as she started to try on a pair of white wash jeans that fit perfectly to her not very large hips.

"Forget your clothes! Mine actually look like they were made especially for me." Nicole yelled as she held three different tops up to her in the mirror.

While the girls were discovering the magic of closets the boys were discovering basically the same things but with a slight twist.

"Whoa guys! I think I found heaven under my bed!" Ian cried as he climbed out from under his gold bed.

"Oh really? Do show us." Remus said from behind one of his many new books on his deep purple comforter. He started to toss a beaters bat to Sirius on his Silver bed and a quaffle to James on his maroon bed "What do I get?" Remus asked from his corner.

"Haha. You get this my friend." And he tossed him an announcers phone since he's one of the temporary announcers at the matches they hold. "Oh very funny." He said as he examined the device.

They started to have a mini game in their room with Ian being the keeper of the hoops, which actually came down from the ceiling at the back of the room. Halfway through the game James stopped them and said, "You guys do realize that we forgot Peter right?"

Silence took over everyone as well as guilt. "I can't believe we just forgot about him." Ian said from underneath the goals.

"Yeah but I mean, Peter's a big boy and he gets to have his own room now. Besides I've been noticing that he keeps disappearing and doesn't even act like he wants to hang out with us anymore."

"Yeah I've been noticing it too." James said. "I think your right Pads. He'll be fine. He can still hang out with us and everything he just won't be able to stay in the same room that's all."

With that said the boys played till they couldn't play anymore. Then they all got ready to go to sleep. They were all situated when they heard a scream coming from the other end of the other staircase.

They all looked at each other and said, "THE GIRLS!"

A/N God I've been trying to get a cliffy in there somewhere! Now that I have I'm good. I'm sorry to all of you who think that the guys are being too harsh by leaving Peter out. I hate the little rat so he prolly won't be in this much!  Anyways as you can see things are starting to heat up between Remus and Nicole and Sarah is starting to think of Sirius in a different way…hmmmmm but will it stay that way? Muhahahaahhhaaaaaaaaaa! Yes I know I'm evil. By the way for anyone who cares this story now has 222 hits and only 10 reviews…does anyone else think that can be helped? I'm just kidding I think it's fine but a few more could never hurt! ;-)


	5. BFIS, Priscilla, and Flirtatious Beings

_**A/N-Hey you guys this isn't a new chapter or anything this is just the same chapter 5 but revised! Gosh I suck at going through the words. BUT!!!!! Just to let you all know I put up little computer dolls of what my characters look like. I only have Lily, Me, Nicole, Alyson, and Ian cause I'm pretty sure you know what everyone else looks like. But go ahead and check it out and try making what you guys thought they looked like and send them to me just for fun. Now sorry to tease you.**_

_**Disclaimer- I DON'T own anything cept a few characters that are too cool to be J.K. Rowling's. Just kidding I wish.**_

The four boys pushed each other out of the way as they ran down their staircase and quickly up the girl's. They got to the door to the girls dorm but it was locked. Remus quickly pulled out his wand and yelled _Alohamora_!!

The door quickly unlocked with a simple 'snap' and then they all clumsily ran through the doorway and saw Nicole climbing back onto her bead from the farthest side from the door, Lily trying to climb up as fast as possible but seemed to be having trouble with it, and finally they looked for Sarah but they couldn't see her.

"What happened? Where's Sarah?" James asked as he helped Lily up. Remus had helped Nicole up as soon as he had come in. But as James asked this there was an extremely loud scream coming from outside. Ian and Sirius looked as each other then ran straight for the window. They scanned the grounds but saw no sign of Sarah.

"DOWN HERE!!"

They looked down and sure enough there was Sarah dangling on a torch that they had used to light the grounds centuries ago about halfway down the tower. "GET ME UP…OR DOWN!!" she yelled. The only thing keeping her up was her sleeve that was slowly ripping.

Sirius leaned back in and looked for her broom. He quickly found it lying on top of her trunk. He grabbed it and jumped head first out of the window. James and Lily ran over to see what he was doing and saw him scoop Sarah up and then he pulled Lily out of the way of the window as they both flew threw. James and Lily landed on Ian, Nicole, and Remus who had been behind them trying to get a glimpse of the chaos.

Sarah got of the broom and immediately fell onto her bed that luckily was right next to their landing spot. "I am never doing base jumping."

"What the hell happened to you three? And how did you get halfway towards becoming a latke?" Remus asked as he sat next to Nicole on her bed.

"We were all getting ready for bed when Sarah here (Lily throws a glare at Sarah but she doesn't notice since her eyes are shut) decides to be funny and stands on the window and starts pretending she's the queen of the world."

Nicole cut in here. "She started to act like we were her slaves and she kept saying what we were. She said that Lily was her personal writer and that I was her personal bookkeeper. She was just in the middle of saying that Snape was her personal grease ball for whenever a door or something was squeaky (Ian patted her on the head at that point making her smirk slightly) when something like a big vacuum sucked her out and pulled me off the bed and Lily onto the ground."

"I think you can guess the rest." Lily said as she plopped back onto the floor.

"Did you get a glimpse of who it was that cast the spell?" Ian asked Sarah. She sat up slowly and starred at him. "Yeah bout 6'7 had neon green hair and was wearing a clown suit. No Ian I didn't catch a glimpse of him _or her_. I was a little preoccupied with the 100-foot drop I was in the middle of. Sorry."

"Geez. It was just a question." He said as he sulked back into the pillows.

"I'm sorry I'm just a little agitated."

She could tell she was forgiven when he leaned over and pulled her into a big bear hug. "Well since everything seems to be ok I guess will just leave. Goodnight." Remus said as he dragged a reluctant James and a still attached to Sarah Ian out of the door. Nicole was already feeling sad at his departure.

Sirius was the last to leave after he silently looked at each of the girls in turn. Sarah watched him walk down the stairs and out of sight until she jumped up and ran down towards the common room.

"Sirius wait!" she said as he just put a foot onto the staircase leading up to the boy's dorm. He slowly turned around and looked at the girl who kept fidgeting with a strand of hair that had come loose from her ponytail.

"Did you just call me Sirius?" he asked slowly.

"Umm…yeah I did. Listen I don't normally do this sort of thing so I'll just say it. Thank You." She said in a fast pace tone while looking at her bare feet on the cold stone step. At the last word she looked up to see a confused look on his face.

"What for?"

It was her turn to look confused. "For saving my life of course."

"Oh that. It was nothing. Anyone in there would have done it."

"Yeah but they didn't, you did…even after the way I've treated you."

"Well lets face it here I haven't been the easiest to get along with." He chuckled. She cracked a smile but quickly replaced it with an undecided grimace.

"I…don't know what…to do now." She said in a small, embarrassed voice as she blushed.

He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand that for some reason Sarah wanted to be holding hers. She quickly shut this thought out and continued to wait for him to say something.

"Hey listen I was thinking that we are being a little childish with all these stupid arguments. I mean we fought about what color socks some kid was wearing in the hall yesterday. I think we can _try_, at least, _try_ to be…" he couldn't exactly find the right word. He wanted to say friends. He really wanted to say a couple but all that came out was…nothing.

"Acquaintances?" she offered meekly.

He let out a big breath of air and dropped his hand and said, "Yeah, acquaintances." He smiled a small smile.

"That sounds like a good idea. Plus this way I can still yell at you and not feel _too_ bad about it." She chuckled as she made her way back up the stairs.

"Goodnight and try not to get sucked out anymore windows ok? This hero needs his beauty sleep."

'Ahh, that's the Black I remember.' She thought as she closed the door to her dorm.

'At last! I don't have to wear a non-puller charm on my underwear anymore. She actually said she'd put up with me. I guess their might be hope for me yet.' He thought as he sleepily climbed into bed and dreamed of rescuing maidens from base-jumping accidents.

It was two weeks after the sucky window accident (as Sarah liked to call it) and none of them could come up with who it had been that cast the spell. James, Sirius and Ian were all dead set on it being a Slytherin but no one knows for sure.

Nicole and Remus had been assigned to be partners in Herbology and were studying in a corner of the Library. 'Ahh! How am I gonna deal with working with him for two weeks without jumping up and kissing him. I can't wait much longer. I am going to do it. I'm going to tell him how I feel. Right…not now. Who am I kidding? He could have probably any girl he wants so why would he want me? I'll just forget it.' Nicole thought the whole time fidgeting with her quill in her left hand and glancing over at him every now and then.

'This sucks! I'm going to have to be alone with her for two whole weeks! One of those weeks will be a full moon week too. I guess I'll just tell her 'my mom's sick' like I do everyone else. I can't believe that I'm practically falling in love with the girl and I can't even tell her. If I wouldn't be putting her in extreme danger and most likely making her hate me then I would be on the other side of this table kissing her right now!' he thought as he furiously wrote bits of nothing onto his paper.

"Hey, it's getting late so I think we should probably head back." She said as she started to pack up her things.

"Yeah you're probably right. We wouldn't Sarah and Sirius to have blown up the whole tower since we weren't there to pick whose better at tying their shoes."

She started to laugh and it made his heart soar, but at the same time sink because he knew that they could never be together. He could never kiss her or hold her hand. The whole time he was thinking this his arm seemed to have created a mind of its own and draped itself over her shoulder as they were walking down the corridor.

She immediately started to blush and stared at his hand next to her cheek. He was staring at it too because he had no clue how it had gotten there. 'Oh shit! Now she's going to hate me and never talk to me and we'll fail the project cause she won't want to be around a freak like me and…wait a minute.'

She had gently leaned in closer to him and didn't move his arm at all. He saw that she was smiling slightly and her blush was still covering the majority of her face. 'Wow. I guess he doesn't think that I'm diseased after all. He's so warm. I could stay like this forever. But he's probably just being a nice guy and it means absolutely nothing. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it while it lasts.'

He smiled down at her and as they pulled the torch and got to the painting he reluctantly slid his arm off of her shoulder and muttered the password in so small a voice that the wolf had to ask him twice what he had said.

When they got inside they saw that the common room was deserted and made their separate ways up the staircases, each of them thinking desperately about the other.

When Nicole came in through the doorway into her dorm she saw that all of the lights were put out. 'That's odd.'

She moved in the general direction of her bed and then was pushed onto it from a force unknown behind her. She landed head first into her Panda pillow and was almost suffocated as she heard Lily say, "Gosh Sarah we just want to question her not kill her."

Sarah reluctantly got up off of Nicole and lit her wand in her face when she had sat all the way up. Her hair was a big mess of blackness from the impact of the bed; it was so funny that Lily couldn't help but giggle slightly but turned it into a cough after Sarah gave her a glare. "This is official B.F.I.S business. There is no laughing here!"

Nicole shot Lily a 'what the fuck' look and then asked, "B.F.I.S?"

"Best Friend Interrogation Squad. Don't change the subject."

"There wasn't a subject to begin with you just tackled me." Nicole said.

"Ohhh. Well the subject is what were you and Remus doing in the library so late?"

"We were working on that Herbology project. You know the one we were _assigned_?"

Lily and Sarah shared a 'yeah right' look and then Lily said, "Ok so what were you and Remus _really_ doing in there so late?"

Nicole rolled her eyes, pushed Sarah's wand out of her face and then proceeded to light candles around the room. "We weren't doing anything. Nothing happened it was just two friends working on a project that's all." But the smile that escaped her lips drew Lily into full questioning mode.

"Are you sure because you seem to have that smile on whenever you're lying about something." She just glanced at her two friends and slowly walked back to her bed still smiling like a dork.

Both Sarah and Lily crossed their arms over their chests and said, "Spill!" in the most authoritive voice they could manage.

"Alright, alright! Nothing happened while we were in the library but when we were walking back towards the common room he put his arm around my shoulder." She said in a dreamy voice.

"What did you do?" Sarah asked with the look of a little kid who was about to find out where the secret stash of cookies was.

"I leaned closer to him. He was so warm and soft. I could have died." She breathed as she fell back into her mound of pillows hugging one to her chest.

"Aww! That's so cute. I wish someone would be like that with me." They both said.

"Well you never know. It could happen one day and maybe even with someone you know right now."

"Yeah, maybe." Lily said visioning a certain glasses wearing, messy haired boy a few feet away.

The next morning Nicole had to be practically dragged into the Great Hall because she was convinced that Remus would regret putting his arm around her. She tried making a run for the safety of her bed three times before they finally got to the doors to the Hall. She tried to bolt again as soon as she saw Remus's head at the table but changed her mind reluctantly when Lily threatened to levitate her over to the table and drop her directly in Remus's lap.

She sat down and immediately hid behind her Transfiguration book. "Hey Nicole." She looked up and saw Remus smiling back at her. She returned the smile in earnest and immediately started up a conversation with him after glaring at Sarah for 'sneezing' "Told ya so."

"Umm, hey Lily." James said from the other side of the girl who was presently buttering a piece of toast. "Hey James."

"Are you all ready for the big meeting with Dumbledore after classes today?" he asked with an over casual tone.

"Umm, yeah I guess I'm as ready as I can be for something I know nothing about." She chuckled. "I was wondering about-"

"What's up Jamie?" came a high squeaky voice that made everyone cringe.

"Hi Priscilla." Priscilla Johnson was the known stalker of James and occasionally Sirius. She was rather short but taller than Sarah and Nicole, just a little shorter than Lily. She had long pin straight brown hair but it always looked more dead than smooth. She always walked with her hand in the air and her elbow balancing on her hip. Her usual lackeys followed her from Hufflepuff.

"What are you up to today?" she giggled making Sarah cover her ear with two sides of a bagel. Before he could answer she plopped down next to him, practically in his lap, and said, "Do you like my new necklace?"

She shoved a large piece of silver into his face and dangled it between his eyes. He watched the locket swing around and around till he started to get a headache. "Umm, yeah Priscilla. It's real nice but could you please move over some I'm starting to get a little woozy."

"Oh, that's okay. Was just wondering if you had any plans for the next Hogsmeade trip weekend after next? And if you don't would you like to go with me?" she winked subtly to her two followers and then waited for his answer. He shook his head as if he was trying to clear it of his dizziness and then shocked everyone by saying, "Yea sure that sounds fine."

The only sound that could be heard was the snap from Lily's piece of toast she cracked in half at the words. 'I thought he had changed. I thought that he was actually going to try and make us work this year. Then again maybe he finally got tired of waiting and moved on like I've been telling him to all these years.'

"Great! See ya then Jamie." She lightly poked his nose then stalked off like the Barbie wannabe she is.

"…Jamie? What the hell kind of nickname is Jamie? What were you thinking man?" Sirius asked.

"I…I don't know. She seems nice enough."

For the rest of breakfast Lily stared only at her eggs, Nicole and Sarah were having a silent conversation with their eyes, and Sirius, Ian, and Remus were all staring at James as if he had lost his mind. Which he very may well have.

That night Ian decided that he wanted to move around a little. He couldn't stand the idea of just sitting on the common room couch watching the fire die for the rest of the night. So he got up and decided to take himself on a little walk.

He started to walk aimlessly around random corridors heading nowhere in particular and quickly found himself thinking of the one person he couldn't understand. Alyson.

She was beautiful, smart, kind, funny, and had a smile that seemed to brighten up even the dark dungeons which is just about the only time they get to spend together. How could someone like that be sorted into a house full of sniveling cowards that hide behind their bloodlines because they're too chicken to accept anything different.

Why wouldn't she go out with him? He had asked her a few other times since her first simple rejection. Then the question turned from 'Will you go out with me?' to 'Why won't you go out with me?'

To both of these questions she gave no answer and pretended not to hear him till he changed the subject.

Turning the next corner he found himself face to face with the tiny blonde that fought through every thought that he had, had for the past few weeks. "Oh umm…hello."

"Yeah, hi." She greeted with a smile. She looked behind him and realized he was alone. "What are you doing out this late without your little buddies?"

"Jut trying to do something other than complete boredom. How about yourself?" he asked in his trying to be charming voice.

"Pretty much the same thing." She giggled. "How about we escape boredom together?"

"Sounds like a perfectly good idea." He extended his arm and said, "Shall we?"

"We shall."

And off they went out around the school, down corridors, and he even showed her the kitchens that she had never seen before. They weren't caught by any prefects and didn't see anyone else in sight surprisingly.

He walked her back to the Slytherin common room and bid her goodnight complete with a bow.

"You know sometimes I wonder if you're not just some guy who got sent forward in time from the medieval era. Are you?" she asked with a playfully suspicious glare.

"Ah well you caught me! I am actually King Arthur in disguise after Merlin made a spell and it completely backfired, so as you can see I am doomed to roam around-"

He was cut off by her lips touching his. He was momentarily stunned! By the time she pulled away he still stood there with his eyes wide staring at her like an idiot. "You're an idiot." She laughed and playfully bopped him on the head. She turned into her common room softly saying 'goodnight.'

"Bloody Hell she kissed me!" And with that he bounded off towards Gryffindor tower with a little more spring to his step, smiling all the way.

"James what were you thinking?" Sirius asked as the three boys made their way to the Womping Willow. James was staring straight ahead as if looking at something but not really seeing it. He had been like that ever since Priscilla asked him out.

"What was I thinking about what?"

"What were you thinking about going to Hogsmeade with Priscilla 'Prissy' Johnson? That is totally ruining the plan we had all agreed on. I know we told you to be a little less attached to Lily but we didn't mean this un-attached!" Sirius scolded as they waited for Peter to poke the knot on the side of the tree and climbed down the tunnel.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Priscilla is a very nice girl who actually cares about me. Unlike a certain red head that seems to rather want to date the giant squid than me, in fact I believe she said that once in 5th year." He said with a scowl on his face that never went along with the mention of Lily.

"I think you've finally lost it mate. Hasn't he Pete?" Sirius asked Peter who was trailing behind the two through the tunnel into the Shrieking Shack.

"You have been acting pretty out of it James." Peter mumbled as they pushed open the floorboards of the main entranceway of the old ruin.

"HEY MOONY!" Sirius bellowed as soon as they were all out of the tunnel. Remus then came out of the room in front of them and looked as if he was about to pass out at any moment.

"Wow man you should sit down!" Peter said as he scrambled to get a chair.

"No, no it'll get broken anyway in a minute. What was with all the yelling I heard on the way up here?"

"That was just Sirius being stupid about my decision about Priscilla."

"Did he tell you that you were ruining any chance with Lily and that you're turning into a completely different person?" he asked in a flat tone.

"Yeah pretty much."

"Then I completely agree with him and I know Ian does too."

James just stood there dumbfounded how all of his friends seemed to be ganging up on him left and right. "Well if that's the way you all seem to feel about it then there's nothing I can do to stop you from it."

He went and sat in a corner with his arms folded in front of him until it was time to turn into his stag form. That night was not the best night the four animals had together but it did improve slightly once they were all out in the woods and running, for the most part, freely.

Little did they know that there were three animals following them the entire night of their fun and frolicking? Those three animals happened to be very intent on keeping up with the werewolf's whereabouts, especially a certain creature in the sky.


	6. Ditching, Sirius the Genius, Scheming

A/N I am SOOOO sorry for the long delay. I don't know what came over me. It was mostly just writers block and lack of motivation but my friends got me back on track with their pestering. So here is chapter 6!!! I would like to send out a message to all those who have been with me for all of this so far I would like to say that no matter how long it takes to update I haven't given up on this story. I don't think it is possible for me to give up so here ya go!!!!

_Disclaimer – DO I look like a lady richer than the queen??? No didn't think so._

The next morning Sirius, James, and Peter climbed in through the Heads Common Room and saw all three girls huddled together, Lily and Nicole on the couch and Sarah sitting beneath them on the floor. They seemed to be discussing something very intently. As soon as the portrait swung closed the girls turned their heads toward them then Nicole and Lily bolted to their dorm.

Sarah just sat there and stuttered for a few seconds before Nicole came back down and dragged her up the stairs while rolling her eyes. "Okay…that was a little-."

"Weird." James finished for Sirius. "What do you think that was all about?" he asked as he plopped tiredly onto the couch.

"No clue. But I'm pretty sure it has something to do with us." Sirius replied while flinching from a rather painful cut on his back. He subtly threw a glare at James and growled, "But at least they seem to be sticking together no matter _what_ the situation is!"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" James glared.

"You know exactly what that means! I thought that your friends meant a little more to you then just some girl you, out of nowhere, are obsessed with and can't get enough of. For Merlin's sake man! You haven't even gone on a date yet!"

Now standing up James towered over to Sirius who was also now standing up to his best height. "It's what happens when you love someone Padfoot! Maybe one day you'll get off your high horse of being the most sought after guy in school and realize that you don't need tons of girls to make you happy and it really only takes the right _one_!"

Peter had been watching the exchange with the look of someone at a tennis match from the armchair by the door. Right now he was calculating the distance between him and the exit and if he could make it with out getting blow up by one of the enraged boys.

Sirius just stared at the boy in front of him. The boy that up until now he thought of as his best friend. The boy who was more to him than his own brother, he was closer than blood. At least…that's what he thought.

"Well if you really think that little of me then I guess I can't stop you but just so you should know…I really don't think you were ever as good of my friend if that's what you really believe I feel about girls, especially…" he stopped himself as he barely glanced towards the staircase. "I won't be seeing you later. I'm moving back into the 7th year dorms."

James glared at his ex-friends retreating back and blew out a gust of air then bolted towards the hospital wing to see if this was how all his friends were going to conclude arguments or if some still had reason.

Remus was lying on his back in the hospital wing staring at the ceiling. 'Gosh I don't even know what I'm going to do when I can't come to Madame Pomfrey for help. Life out side of school is going to be hell. I just know it.'

He had only had his eyes closed for half a minute before he heard the cries of James as he pushed open the doors like a man on a mission. "What are you yelling about James?" he asked in an annoyed tone that he hadn't meant to use.

"Sirius is being absurd! He said that I was giving up on you guys for some girl that I probably don't even like."

"Well…you sort of are James." James just stood there with betrayal clear in his features. "Don't get me wrong you're still my friend somewhere deep down but lately you've been acting like there isn't anyone else in the world besides Priscilla. Not even the Marauders. Isn't that the number one Marauder rule? Marauders first and foremost? Marauders till the end?"

James just looked at his friend with confusion and eventually couldn't handle the fact that he was making some sense and stormed off. As he was leaving he bumped into Ian. Ian had been being oddly closed off and didn't joke around as much as he used to. Whenever any of them would ask him what happened he would just say, "Nothing just bored."

"Hey man. Where you off to in such a rush?" Ian asked as he looked at James with one eyebrow cocked.

"Nowhere. It's just…I can't be around any of my so-called friends right now. They all just can't seem to understand that I'm in love and I have no idea why. I mean, they are supposed to be my friend's right? Supposed to be there for me through thick and thin right? How bout you? How do you feel about all this?"

Ian looked around, anywhere but at James's eyes. "Listen mate. I think that it's your decision and all on who to date but I can't believe that you would get over Lily that quickly. Weren't you the one that said, 'This really means a lot to me.' when we came up with the plan to get you two together? And as far as I'm concerned it was working extremely well up until _Priscilla_." He spat the last word like it was a bad taste.

"YOU KNOW WHAT? WHY DON'T YOU ALL JUST LEAVE ME ALONE SO THEN YOU WON'T HAVE TO BE DISGUSTED BY MY CHOICES!!!"

Ian was left standing in the corridor with a shock-ridden face. 'What has gotten into him?'

The next morning the girls were still acting suspiciously when ever any of the guys would come around. James was currently over at the Hufflepuff table with Priscilla and her cronies. Sirius, Ian, Peter, and a now out of the Hospital Wing Remus were glaring daggers over at him. "Look at him, that pig! You would think he would actually care that he only ate two sausages. If I didn't know any better I would think he was under some sort of spell or something!!" Sirius exclaimed as he took a swig of pumpkin juice.

"THAT'S IT!!!!" Remus screamed as he stood up from the table and ran towards wherever this 'it' was, causing Sirius to spit the juice he'd been drinking all over Peter who had unfortunately been sitting in front of him.

"What was that all about?" Nicole asked as the girls sat down. Sarah on Sirius's right, Nicole on his left, and Lily across from Nicole next to Peter. "I have no bloody idea but you would think that if it was so bloody fantastic he would care to explain a little bit." Peter mumbled as he mopped up the juice on his Transfiguration book.

Lily looked behind her at James and the girl he is supposedly in love with and suddenly felt like she should start crying. She couldn't explain the feeling; it just came to her. She quickly turned back around as his eyes found hers. 'Snap out of it Lily!! You shouldn't be feeling this way it's not right.'

"Liiiilllyy??? You in there?" Sarah waved her hand in front of her friends face and when she didn't respond she had to do something drastic. "I didn't want to have to do this Lily. But you leave me no choice."

She carefully grabs the ice cube from her drink then goes behind Lily. The next thing anyone knew Lily was three feet in the air and Sarah had somehow already managed to get under the table and in her seat in two seconds. "HOLY CRAP THAT'S COLD!!!"

Nicole tried to hide her laughter with a face of concern and secretly gave Sarah a high five under the table. Lily kept jumping around for a few more seconds till the now half melted ice cube came out of the back of her shirt.

She turned and glared at Sarah who was smiling a big cheesy smile and moving her finger in a circle above her head muttering 'halo.' "What did I ever do to you huh? Never mind." She added quickly as she saw Sarah was seriously coming up with examples.

Lily looked over her shoulder to see James still staring at her. She couldn't tell if he had been looking at her since before the ice cube incident or after. She blushed and threw her head around so as to hide from his stare.

Sirius and Peter looked in the direction Lily and the other girls were staring and saw James looking at them. "Oy! Mind your own business will ya!" James glared at him for a moment then turned back to stare at Priscilla who had been so into her story of her new lip-gloss flavor she hadn't noticed his attention was diverted.

Remus had been 15 minutes late for potions. When he did show up his tie was askew and his hair had the look of windblown. 'Hmmm…sexy. Wait! Please let me have just said that in my head and not out loud.' Nicole prayed as she nervously turned around in her seat.

"Mr. Lupin! You are defiantly not the person I would peg as a ditcher. I'll let it slide this once just don't let it happen again." Madam Blanc commanded as she looked over the edge of the papers she was passing out.

"Yes Mam. Won't happen again." He apologized as he slid into his seat and instantly dug out a piece of parchment and wrote furiously. When Madam Blanc turned her back to him to reprimand Goyle for misuse of a newt eye, he passed the now folded piece of paper onto Sirius's desk.

While Narcissa was staring at Lucious in front of her with gaga eyes he un-folded the parchment and read

Meet me in the Library at lunch.

Pass along.

He balled the note up then beamed it at Sarah's head. She turned around to glare at him. She had the tip of her wand lit to burn the nuisance but she then realized that the note was from Remus since Sirius was waving his arms around like a mad man between the wand and Remus.

Just for fun she held the note closer to the flames just to see what he would do. She carefully kept her face composed as he kept turning his head around and around between her and Remus. She seriously (no pun intended) thought it might fly off if he kept it up.

She chuckled evilly as she extinguished the wand and read the note. She turned toward Remus and gave a subtle nod so he would know that she would be there. She carefully folded the note into an airplane and flew it carefully right into Lily's lap.

Lily turned away from seeing that she got another O on her most recent paper to read the little parchment craft. She turned to Sarah and raised an eyebrow in confusion. Sarah wasn't one to voluntarily skip a meal for the library. Sarah shook her head and jerked her ponytail in Remus's general direction and Lily quickly understood.

Lily had already copied the notes so she decided to ornately turn the note into a tiny boat and sailed it carefully between desks and peoples heads. Unfortunately since she was most obviously preoccupied with what Remus could possibly have wanted all of them in the library for she accidentally dipped it into a potion or two. She would not accept that her aim was off for any other reason, especially if that reason had messy hair and glasses.

The vessel landed squarely onto the top of Nicole's un-suspecting head and delicately fell into her lap when she jumped from the sudden visitor. She was thankful for any distraction from having to listen to all of the fools around her go on and on about the newest way to hex first years such as dangle them from the top of the astronomy tower.

She could tell that the boat was most defiantly from Lily since it was so skillfully charmed. But it didn't take her long to figure out that Mr. Windblown himself originally wrote the note. Of course she hasn't memorized his handwriting. Phssh! What were you thinking…(cough, cough) moving on now.

She nodded once to him in which they both turned away from the small exchange blushing. She decided to take out her embarrassment on the notes last landing spot, a.k.a Ian. She carefully placed the now arrow formed note at the end of her wand then muttered a quick spell that sent the note going really fast and hit directly in the center of the back of his neck.

There was a loud yelp and bang as Ian jumped from his stool and fell onto the cold hard dungeon floor. Everyone started to laugh and Ian bashfully pulled himself back up. He looked behind him for the culprit and glared at Nicole as she innocently waved at him with a sly smirk.

Rubbing his now aching bum he sat back down and grabbed the offending piece of paper. He quickly read it and briefly wondered how big the library actually was since he never ventured in farther than necessary. Considering no one was talking to James any longer he didn't feel the need to throw it to him.

"What cha got there?" Alyson asked from next to him. He had momentarily forgot that she was there. They hadn't spoken since their little encounter outside of her common room. He was worried that she had regretted it, or worse forgotten it, when she didn't say a word to him when she came in and had gone straight to work.

"Umm…just a note. Nothing important." He clumsily shoved the note into his pocket and tried to think of something to say that made sense. He didn't want to just come out and say, 'Hey remember when we had that mini snog session the other night? I sure do and I'm up for another round if you are.' He decided that might be just a _little_ too forward.

I should just ask her out to Hogsmeade this weekend and get it over with. He took a deep breath in preparation when she cut him off and said, "Hey listen I was wondering if that offer for Hogsmeade was still open." He let out the air in a big whoosh and tried to make it seem like this wasn't a big deal, just another date, but on the inside he was jumping for joy like Sirius on a sugar rush.

"Yeah. Yeah! Of course it is. Do you want to go? With me that is." He asked with his eyes wide from shock. He could see a blush slowly creeping up onto her cheeks.

She hung her head so that her waves of hair would cover her face and the smirk that was practically taking up her entire face. "Yeah I would really like to go. With _you_ that is." She said in a smart-alecky way.

"THAT'S GREAT!!" he bellowed, temporarily forgetting where they were and how close the teacher with a very hard wooden spoon was.

After he stopped seeing double spoons coming at him he turned back to Alyson and smiled sheepishly and whispered, "That would be great."

Remus was sitting in a chair at a table near the front of the library. He kept reading and re-reading the text in front of him as if it was telling him a deep dark secret. His foot was impatiently tapping waiting for the rest of the group to show up.

The first to show was Nicole with an extremely curious expression on her face. He didn't see her when she first came in. So when she plopped into the seat next to him he jumped making him loose his page. "Remus, are you ok?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. If there is anyone we should be worried about it should be James. I'll wait for the others to get here to finish explaining but I think I figured out why he's acting the way he is."

She nodded her head processing what he had said. When he was finished talking Lily appeared with a scarily happy Ian walking, more like floating, next to her. She kept throwing suspicious glances his way. When she caught the other two's eye she pointed to him and made a 'what the hell is he on?' motion.

After they sat down Nicole leaned closer to Ian and carefully studied his expression. "Having known this particular subject," she started acting like a scientist, "since infancy I would believe I know what his problem is. He must have gotten snogged very recently or he inhaled a little too much helium again."

He sighed dreamily and laid down on the table while murmuring the word yes over and over again. "Right now I'm pretty sure it's a toss up." Lily said as she waved her hand back and forth in front of her semi-conscious friend.

After a few more moments they could here the distinct sound of someone running into one of the suits of armor. Then a very loud string of curse words then the sound of hysterical laughing. They could easily see the whole scene in their heads since the cursing was defiantly Sarah after tripping again and the laughing obviously Sirius because she couldn't get unstuck.

There was silence then a very loud 'SMACK' followed by, "OWW!!!!"

A few moments later as expected Sarah was dragging a red hand printed Sirius into the library. "So is anyone going to tell us the point of this little pow wow or what?" Sarah asked as she found a seat comfortably in Nicole's lap, completely ignoring the wiggling girls complaints. The others just looked at each other wondering the same thing and a few were just wondering what the heck a pow wow was.

"Well since it looks like we're all here," he looks at Ian warily, "for the most part lets get down to business. Follow me."

They all rose from their chairs and followed Remus into the farther and darker part of the library. Sirius and, a now more aware, Ian leaned closer to each other and started to stare at the books as if they were about to jump off of their shelves and attack. Sarah could have sworn she heard one of them growl.

They eventually reached a large, heavy table in one of the farthest and darkest corners in the section. They all took seats at the round table and turned all their attention on Remus for explanations.

"This morning at breakfast I had an idea about what could be wrong with James." Lily slightly winced at the mention of his name. "Surprisingly enough it was brought on by something you said Padfoot." Remus said giving Sirius a pat on the back. The others just stared at him as if he had lost his mind.

"When you said, 'If I didn't know any better I would say he was under some sort of spell' I figured it out." The others just stared at him waiting for him to go into specifics.

"He _is_ under some sort of spell. Remember the morning when Priscilla," yet again more growls and grunts, "came over and asked him out. The day this all started. She waved that necklace of hers in his face trying to show it off to him. But I don't think she just wanted a compliment."

"Wait, are you saying you think that she hypnotized him?" Lily questioned warily. She didn't want to get her hopes up that it was something that reversible.

"That's what I thought at first. But then I looked up hypnotism and she didn't ask him anything about going out until after she took the necklace away from his face, and she would have had to ask the question while under the power of the hypnosis."

"Ok I'm lost again." Ian moaned. "If he's not hypnotized then what is wrong with him?"

"I tried to remember what that necklace looks like and it wasn't hard since she hasn't taken it off and flaunts it as best she can. When I had the image I looked it up and that necklace isn't just a necklace. It's an amulet that can make a certain person become bonded to it if they look directly into the center for at least three seconds. The only way to keep the spell working is if the necklace never touches the ground. It's best to just keep it on at all times and to wear a very sturdy chain so it won't fall." He finished with a big smile and clap of his hands.

"And you got all of this from one sentence he said while stuffing bacon into his mouth?" Nicole mused as she realized how fast his brain had to work to figure that out so quickly. She never thought she would have something she could personally call brain envy.

"Yup pretty much."

"Well that's it then." Sirius stood up and pushed his chair out of the way while heading for the exit.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Sarah questioned with a hint of worry to her voice. They had only seen him like that a couple of times before. Like when someone called Lily or Sarah a mudblood or if someone complimented his family.

"I'm going to go rip that damn amulet of her scrawny little neck, chock her with it then smash the thing to bits." He exclaimed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well in that case," Ian quickly go up followed by Sarah, "what are we waiting for?" The three were almost out the door when Lily grabbed Ian, Remus grabbed Sirius, and Nicole grabbed Sarah and dragged them over to the nearest table.

"You can't just go barging up to her and rip it off." Remus grunted as he tried to keep Sirius seated.

"And why the hell not?"

"Because she still has James under her control and she can get him to fight you if you just waltzed up to her. We got to plan this out!" After one more big push into the seat Sirius settled down and looked at the rest of the group trying to read their reactions to this plan.

"He's right. As much as I hate to admit, he's right. We need to come up with a really tricky mastermind plan that will work in our favor." Ian blurted as everyone else nodded in agreement. They all left for class then met up at the boy's dormitory later that night.

After many hours of scheming and quite a few comments on the mess and smell they had a plan that would hopefully give them their friend back. As they all fell asleep in a pile on the floor, some liking the closeness more than others, they all thought the same thing;

'God I hope this works.'

A/N: Yet again I'm sorry about the lengthy time line here people. I was intending to make this and the next chapter all one chapter but I thought you guys might just want to know that I was still on the planet. So here ya go. I already know what happens in the next chapter. Since I still feel guilty I'll give you a lil summary. There is a fistfight, new character, dawning realization, a butter beer intoxication, and maybe a conga line…yes it will make sense I swear. Hahaha

_Please review and tell me wat I'm doin wrong!!!_

_peace SARAH_


	7. Visions, Spy Glasses, and first dates

_**A/N Hey people this is the longest chapter I have EVER written!! 20 pages on Word. I apologize for the long wait. I don't really know when my next update will be since I start school on the 4**__**th**__**. It might take me a while to get another one in so I would say maybe two or three weeks…I AM SOOO SORRY! It makes me sad when I can't update. **__****_

_**Anywho, ON WITH THE SHOW! **_

Disclaimer- I own none of this except for a few of the BEST CHARACTERS EVER WRITTEN!!!

The rest of the week went by with strict watching over James and Priscilla's actions. There was even a few times where you would probably here Sarah teaching Sirius about how to be James Bond. They were all getting ready for the big weekend, it would be the first Hogsmead trip of the year and when their plan would be put into action. Not only that but it would be the first time Ian and Alyson go on a date.

It was the night before Hogsmead and Ian, Sirius, Peter, and Remus were all going over a few last minute details. "Okay so do we all know what we're gonna do?" Remus asked the half asleep boys. Sirius nodded while packing the bag full of 'necessary' things he thought would help the cause. Ian just laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling with a smile on his face.

The other three realized his silence and stared at him waiting for an answer. When none came Sirius took it upon himself to get his attention. "Earth to Ian! Earth to Ian!!" he screamed in the unsuspecting boy's ear. In one second Ian was on his feet and half way off the bed when he slipped and landed with a rather loud 'OUFF!'

When they had all gotten back to their regular breathing patterns from laughing, Remus got a concerned look on his face. "Ian are you alright? You've been acting all giddy lately and you act like this is something normal and I can tell you right now that it's not. 

He looked at them and wondered how they would take the fact that he was going out with a Slytherin. He doesn't remember _Sirius_ even going out with one. Maybe he should just lie again. Then again he shouldn't lie to them; they're his friends. "Alright I'll tell you but you have to promise me that you won't get mad at me. I would support any of you if it were you that made the decision." They were all listening intently now, putting down all of the plans.

He took a deep breath and then admitted, "I'm taking Alyson Silver to Hogsmead on Saturday."

It was extremely silent with all three of them having hanging mouths. "Very funny you almost got me there. That's really hilarious, you taking out a Slytherin. Yeah jokes on us." Sirius nervously laughed.

"I'm not so sure he's kidding Sirius." Remus said still keeping eye contact with Ian.

"What do you mean he's not kidding? Of course he is. He wouldn't sink that low."

"Hey. She is nothing like the others. She actually has a heart and is beautiful, funny, kind, sweet, smart, and actually cares about others feelings!" He was now standing up and getting just a _tad_ upset.

Sirius stood up and stared him straight in the eye. Whatever he was looking for he must have not found because he sighed and started to rub the back of his neck. "If you really trust her and if she really makes you happy then I guess we can't really stop you from doing what you want." He looked back into his eyes and said, "I'll trust her if you do."

Ian smiled his huge crooked grin and gave him a huge 'manly' hug. He then looked down to Remus and saw him smirking slightly while saying, "Same here but if she makes us hang around with Bellatrix and that crowd I'm gonna have to pass." They all started laughing until there was a weird screeching noise from the window.

They all grabbed there wands, Peter was just hiding under his covers, and spread out across the room. There was soon another noise except this seemed more like a human squeak saying 'LET ME DOWN!!!'. They all looked at each other curiously and said, "Lily?"

Remus pocketed his wand and ran to the window. When he got there his eyes widened slightly at the sight. Lily was hanging onto the back of Sarah on her broom as if her life depended on it. Nicole was directly behind them trying to move out of the way of the now spinning out of control broom.

By now Sirius and Ian were behind Remus as he pulled open the window and asked, "What in the bloody hell is wrong with you guys?"

Nicole heard his voice and quickly flew the few feet between them and whisper yelled, "Something's wrong with Sarah. We were flying over here cause James and Priscilla were in the heads common room and we didn't want to seem suspicious. We got about halfway here when Sarah lost control of her broom. Lily isn't helping the situation since she hates flying in the first place."

"Well can't you do something?!" Sirius screamed. Nicole rolled her eyes and said, "Wow never would have thought of trying that. Of course I've tried but it's so crazy I can't get at it."

Lily was still panicking, only slightly (cough yeah right cough) and was trying to get Sarah to stop. "What's wrong with her?! SOMEONE GET ME OFF OF HERE!!!" Lily screamed. A few seconds, that seemed like a few hours to Lily, after her last scream Sarah seemed to get a hold of her self and started screaming herself, "WHAT THE HECK?! LILY DID YOU JINX MY BROOM!?"

"ME?! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S FLYING THE DAMN THING!!"

"Oh yeah." Then the broom suddenly came to an abrupt halt. Both Lily and Sarah's hair was up and very high. They reminded Nicole of a certain rock star, and to add to her theory when Lily came into the room the first thing she said was "Thank you, thank you very much."

When Sarah was halfway through the window she grabbed her head, moaned and then sunk into Sirius's arms. He carried her to the bed closest to the window that happened to be James's old one and stared into her eyes and after a minute said, "She doesn't have a concussion so I don't think she got hit with anything."

"Sarah can you here me? If you can say something." Nicole commanded with worry clouding her features. Nothing happened. "Please." She whispered.

"I feel like I got hit by a Mac truck." Sarah groaned as she tried to sit up, and then fell back onto the pillows. "What happened?"

"Oh my gosh your okay." Lily and Nicole jumped on her and gave her huge hugs. "Okay, okay. I can see something happened but what exactly?" Sarah chuckled as she stared at Ian, Remus, and Sirius since the other two seemed to be in there own little world at the moment.

"Well all we know is that you were flying over here when you lost control of your broom and went spinning out of control with poor Lily on the back." Ian chuckled as Lily threw him a glare.

"Then," Nicole interjected since she sensed the tension, "you wouldn't respond to any of us when we called your names and you just had this blank look on your face."

Sarah looked like she was concentrating hard on what she just learned. "I don't really remember what happened. I just remember all of a sudden being jerked around with Lily screaming bloody murder at someone. Then coming in the window and collapsing."

"Do you remember anything about what you were thinking or seeing." As soon as seeing came out of Remus's mouth Sarah gasped and yelled "I did see something!"

"What? Like someone on the grounds?" Sirius asked.

"No it was…you guys are gonna think I'm crazy." She looked down at her lap and started to fiddle with her hands.

"Sarah," Nicole grabbed her chin gently and made her look dead into her eyes, "there is no way we can think your any crazier than we already do." She smiled. The others laughed their agreement.

She smiled then sighed as she said, "I guess not." She stared at all of them then continued. "We were just flying when I started to feel like I was going under water, like something was dragging me ya know? Then I started to see what looked like…me. I was going into some creepy building with my wand out in front of me. I looked determined about something; when I finally got into the front room it was dark; so dark that I couldn't really make anything out. Then I heard someone screaming; a man. I turned towards the staircase and ran up them but I could tell I was trying to be quiet. When I got to the top there was a loud bang and I was on the floor. Then I was pretty sure it was Bellatrix's voice I heard cackling about Sirius, me being a mudblood (cringe from everyone in the room), and death. I spat towards the voice in the shadows and said, 'If it was all for nothing then I don't care. The secrets kept and he's okay.' Then there was an aggravated scream and a flash of red light and that's all I remember."

Everyone stared at her for a long time. "See I told you, you guys would think I was crazy." She tried to lighten the mood. "What do you think?"

"I think," Remus was the first to come out of the daze and say, "Sarah that you had a…well a vision."

Everyone looked from him to Sarah who had just turned a few shades paler. "No that, that can't be true." She shook her head in denial.

"He's probably right." She snapped her head up to stare at Lily as if she had just uttered that the Red Sox would win a World Series. _(Had to use it. I'm sorry but that win was pretty far fetched in the 60's or whenever this happened)_ "I mean you are rarely ever wrong in divination and you always seem to guess outcomes correctly." 

"So what! I get good grades and I'm a really good guesser that doesn't mean I'm some weird freak who can see the future!" she replied sounding more like she was trying to convince herself that this made no sense more than them. They all just looked at her with the same face, 'face it, you can see the future.'

"I guess it does make a little sense." She shrugged. "But, does that mean that what I saw will actually come true? And if it does what was I doing there in the first place? What secret was I keeping? Who was the guy? And why did Bellatrix want me?" She rambled on until Nicole shoved a pillow in her mouth.

"All good questions and we should see Dumbledore about them tomorrow. Ok?" Nicole asked with a cheeky tone of a parent reasoning with a child. Sarah just glared at her and grunted 'yubuh wuteva'. (It was a little muffled by the pillows)

They then pushed the matter to the side for a while as they covered their plan for the next day. When it was all done the girls were getting ready to go and Ian was extremely pleased that the subject of Alyson hadn't come up, but he had noticed a few things Remus changed so it would take a shorter amount of time and winked at him when everyone wasn't looking.

They were just getting on their brooms when Sirius randomly said in a too innocent voice, "Ian, didn't you have something you wanted to inform the girls about?"

'That little fu- I'm gonna get him! He just had to open his fat mouth didn't he?'

"What do you want to tell us then cause I personally want to go to bed?!" Sarah demanded through half closed lids.

"Umm I think maybe you guys should sit down for this." He said cautiously. They all kept their eyes on him as they all sat back down on James's bed. "Umm, please don't get mad at me. I had a very good reason for telling you and that reason was cause I was scared for my own personal safety." He said with a straight face.

"IaskedAlysonSilvertogotoHogsmeadewithmetommorowandshesaidyes."he breathed in one take.

They were all quiet till at the same time they yelled, "WHAT!?" he cringed and stepped behind Peter.

"WHY would you go out with a _Slytherin_?" Sarah hissed.

"WHY wouldn't you TELL us?" Nicole bellowed turning red in the face.

"HOW long has it been going on?" Lily, more calmly then the others, questioned.

"Hey! She isn't like the others. She has a heart and I really, _really _like her. I'm sure you guys will get along if you give her a chance. I'm pretty sure she won't object to getting to know you guys. I already told you why I didn't tell you! Cause you would get all mad…sort of like you are now." He shrugged sheepishly. "And seeing that you already brought it up Lily," he scratched "I have been sort of flirting and talking with her since school started, and shekissedmeafterIwalkedhertohercommonroomonenight!"

Their eye's widened at the mention of kissing. "Excuse me? I do believe you said _kissed you._" Nicole hissed, which coming from her is worse then screaming. "Umm, yeah."

"YOU KISSED A SLYTHERIN?!" Sarah screamed. 'What the HELL was he thinking? She's probably just some skank that wants to add another hottie to her 'I've tapped that' list!!'

"YES I DID! Listen Sarah; it's not that big of a deal. You're blowing this way out of proportion; you _all_ are." He was starting to lose his cool. 'Why can't they just accept this?' (sigh) "I thought you guys cared about me enough to support me on something that makes me happy."

'Ha! Just keep looking pathetic and they'll fall right into my hands.' As soon as he finished all of their gazes softened immensely. Lily and Nicole looked at each other and silently agreed that they were overdoing it just a little bit. Sarah on the other hand had softened up a bit but quickly got her glare back and was about to tell him where he could stick that friendship when Nicole covered her mouth and glared at her so intensely that she had to re-think her response.

Her eyes fell to the floor as Nicole removed her hand carefully away from her mouth. "We're happy for you Ian. You deserve to have a girl you really like for once." Lily said as she gently gave him a pat on the back.

"Yeah bud. I don't think we can stand to see our little boy growing up but we'll live. Of course she's still going to have to get the ok from me before she can get any kind of approval." Nicole teased as she gave him a big hug. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He laughed and soon everyone joined in; that is everyone except Sarah.

When everyone's gaze was on her she lifted her eyes that were still on the floor and stared directly at Ian. She took in a deep breath then quietly and in a monotone voice dejectedly said, "Well if this is someone that _really_ makes you happy then I guess no matter what we say you'll hang around her so what's the point in tryin to stop ya?" she started to smile and gave him a giant hug that he greatly returned. "But," she took a step back and glared right into his eyes, "if she hurts you in anyway or is just a flat out bitch that that put you under a spell like James then I will have to kill her." He laughed it off and hugged her again even though he knew part of that was most likely true.

Soon the small embrace turned huge after Sirius felt the need to yell, "GROUP HUG!" Later all the girls flew back to their room, without incident, and everyone went to sleep ready for the big day ahead. 'Things are starting to make sense around here.' Was the last thing Ian thought before dreaming about Alyson and how he would make tomorrow her best date ever.

Lily was still in a horrible nightmare in which James laughs at her while running off in the direction of Priscilla's horrible voice. She fell to her knees crying and begging herself to wake up. "Well, well, well; if it isn't the stupid little mudblood that couldn't hold onto a man if she tried." Lily's tearstained face turned up to glare at the evil smirk that was causing her all this anguish.

"What do you want?" she spat.

"Oh nothing just needed to tell you to WAKE UP!" she suddenly had Sarah's voice and was smiling like someone who had just won the lottery.

'Wah?' She was suddenly being flown in the air. Up and down, up and down, over and over again, she was constantly moving. She could scarcely make out Sarah's face as she was singing the 'Good Morning' song from Singing in the Rain. When she finally woke up enough to make Sarah go tumbling onto the floor she saw Nicole lying on her stomach and covering her face with her pillow, most likely sending some nasty thoughts Sarah's way.

'Why would Sarah be in such a good mood? She never wakes up early unless it's a Quidditch match or something really exciting. Wait that was it there was something exciting…oh yeah the plan was today.' She was suddenly in a newfound state of hyperness. She was ready.

"Oh Jamie Poo your so sweet. I can't get enough of you." Priscilla practically yelled while she ran her fake nail down his nose.

Remus and Ian put a hand on each of Sirius's shoulders to hold him down incase he got a little too impulsive. "Listen, she's probably not _that_ bad deep, deep, _deep_ down. We can always hope fore that." Nicole tried to reason.

Priscilla then made a loud cackle like sound and practically screeched, "I can't believe you would hang out with freaks like Cunanan, Halman, and especially Evans." Nicole's eyes darkened. "Then again maybe she's just pure evil."

"Bitch is goin down!" Sarah exclaimed as she stormed out of the Great Hall, Lily and Nicole quickly going after her. Lily kept her head down so as no one could see her almost tears.

"How long do you think it's going to take them to realize we don't leave for another 45 minutes?" Remus asked the other three. Ian smirked and counted, "5,4,3,2…and 1" Then Sarah stormed back into the room and sat back down. She turned to look up at them and growled, "You saw nothing."

"Suuuure. What ever you say." Sirius joked. She tried to hide the smirk that threatened to appear across her face. 'God! How does he do that to me? It's driving me insane. I want to just reach across this table and kiss him- WAIT freeze missy. Don't even think about thinking that!'

They not so calmly waited till it was about twenty minutes till everyone was about to leave. "Hey we should start heading down there." Sirius, Remus and Peter were heading out of the Great Hall when a confused Sarah, Nicole, Lily and Ian caught up to them.

"What do you mean we should be heading down there? No one's gonna leave for at least twenty minutes. How do you expect us to get down there?" Nicole tried to get them to say something but they just kept smirking and walking threw, what looked like to her, random hallways that apparently would get them into Hogsmeade.

They finally reached a statue of a witch with a rather large hump for a back. Remus pointed dramatically behind them and yelled, "WATCH OUT!!" All of them pulled out their wands and turned to protect themselves from whatever was coming. But all they heard was the sound of scraping stone and Sirius's bark like laugh.

They turned around to see a passageway in the back of the statue that seemed to lead down into a dark creepy tunnel. "Hey!" Sarah pouted about being tricked and quickly followed the still laughing Sirius into the tunnel. "You better come back here mister cause I still need to yell at you!" she bellowed in her best pathetic little kid voice.

Remus was trying to hide his chuckle but failed miserably and had to hold onto the wall for support. "How come you guys never told _me_ about the passage?" Ian mumbled as he dejectedly followed the other three into the hole.

"Aww. This was just one of those Marauder only kind of things mate. But now you know so you can use it for all your dirty deeds. Hahahaha." He then turned around and looked Nicole dead in the eye as he bowed saying Ladies first. She giggled and blushed so red you would think she just got back from a bad day at the beach.

Lily had a sly smirk on her face as she looked at Remus and questioned, "Remus, where does this lead?"

He smiled knowing exactly where she was getting with this. "The cellar of Honeydukes."

"So _that's_ how you guys got all that food and stuff into party's so fast and with out getting caught." His only response was to smile and put a finger over his lips. They followed the rest of the group down the tunnel and when they had all finally gotten out they bolted out of the store before they could be seen, Sirius grabbing a few licorice snaps on his way, and went into the alley next to the building.

"So we all know where to go and what we're doing right?" A loud chorus of various agreements followed and after they all put their hands in the middle of a circle almost as if they were soccer players about to play the championship. After they had all left for their posts it was only Peter, Sirius, and Remus left.

"Go Pete. Remember wait till they are already about halfway here before initiating the attack." Sirius seriously (no pun intended) said. After Peter was gone Sirius and Remus looked to each other and simultaneously put on their 'spy shades' as Sarah liked to call them. They leaned against the side of Honeydukes trying to look as cool as possible with a toothpick hanging from the side of their mouths.

It took another twenty minutes before they could see Peter bobbing next to James and Priscilla trying to keep up. Sarah and Nicole wouldn't be disappointed because sure enough their targets, the two lackeys, were trailing right behind the creep as usual.

They saw Sarah and Nicole quietly sneak up behind the two Barbie clones, while wearing their own spy shades, and stun them and quickly drug them into a nearby alleyway. They were a little worried about what was going to happen to them cause Sarah and Nicole had just shook their heads with evil little smirks on their faces when anyone asked what they planned to do with the cronies.

Priscilla didn't even notice the change in numbers. That was Sirius and Remus's cue to start the small talk. "Hey Jamie my boy." Sirius bellowed like a man who hasn't seen an old friend for 10 years. He lightly put a hand on James's shoulder and Remus came up beside Priscilla and politely bowed his head as a greeting.

"What do you want Black?" James sighed.

"Now is that any way to talk to your best pal? Listen, in all seriousness (small smirk) we did over react just a little when we called you a bad friend and a fake Marauder and a slimy git-"

"You never called me a slimy git."

"Trust me we were thinking it." Sirius chuckled as Remus mouthed "O yeah" with big over exaggerated eyes.

"Anyways we were wrong and we would like to apologize by buying you a butter beer over at the Three Broomsticks."

"And of course you should bring along this..._lovely_ little lady along with you." Remus forced a smile onto his face as he beamed at the little wench next to him.

"Umm, sure. I guess. I mean if that's okay with you Hun?" James sent a pleading look at Priscilla while the other two gagged behind their hands.

"Well I guess we could but we can't stay long cause I want you to buy me some things from that jewelry store down the road by Madam Puddifoots." Remus was waiting for her to say kidding or something but she was serious about having James by her expensive crap. 'Good Merlin can she be any more self obsessed?! She probably wants him to by her an engagement ring or something.'

"Of course dear." James smiled down at her in a horribly sweet way that made even some random little kids gag. Remus and Sirius spent the rest of the walk to the pub behind the two fake lovebirds making stabbing motions into the back of Priscilla's head.

When they finally did get there Remus made sure that they got the table closest to the door and kept eyeing it with anticipation. "Wait a minute where's Lindsay and Jessica? Weren't they right behind us?" Priscilla started to get a slightly nervous look on her face realizing that she was now outnumbered.

"Oh didn't you hear them? They said that they had wanted to go get some candy while they were at Honeydukes and that they would catch up later." Sirius gave her his 'dazzling smile' and she seemed to not care about it as much anymore. 'The last thing we need is for her to be on edge.'

"Hey guys! Fancy seeing you here." A voice called to them from a few feet away. That voice happened to belong to none other than Lily. "Ahh the piece de resistance.' Remus thought as he looked her over and shut Sirius's mouth for him. They had decided that the best way to try and snap James out of it without having to go through all the dirty mess of breaking the necklace would be to try and lure him out of it with his heart's true desire.

Lily.

Sarah and Nicole had spent almost an hour alone on her outfit trying to make her look as sexy yet sophisticated as possible. They finally decided on a plaid gray and black mini skirt with a ribbon going up the side and a silky green, skin tight top that only wrapped around her neck for support. She finished it off with small one-inch black ankle boots.

"Hi James."

'OH MY GOD!! Don't blush! Don't blush! It'll give it all away if you do.' James was staring at her with his mouth half open and his lids half closed. She giggled at his dream like appearance and made room for herself in between the two other boys.

Priscilla saw the state that James was in and rightly smacked him in the back of his head. He shook his head like a wet dog and quickly gave her a peck on the cheek that made Lily's insides suddenly feel like they were being grabbed and twisted into intricate knots.

Remus subtly put a reassuring hand on her shoulder for a second as comfort and she gave him a grateful smile. She abruptly put her game face back on and turned her attention to Priscilla's neck. "Oh that is such a beautiful necklace. It must be an antique. Where'd you get it?" she fawned.

Her hand instinctively covered the gem and stonily replied, "Yes it is an antique. My grandma passed it down to me like her grandma did to her."

"Can I see it?"

"Of course not. Its too precious for your hands to be on it." James frowned at her and shook his head slightly then looked anywhere but at either of the two girls. Lily sheepishly put her hand down that had been halfway up to retrieve it.

'There goes Plan A. Onto Plan B.' Sirius suddenly threw a bouncy ball he had in his pocket into the air over and over again, almost touching the ceiling.

"Well looky here. If it isn't some of my favorite people in all of Hogwarts." Ian exuberantly bounced over to their table with a glass of butter beer in his hand. Sirius made a show of dropping the ball and having Ian 'accidentally slip on it.' The butter beer went flying into the air and directly all over Priscilla's blouse.

"EEEKK!" She hollered for about ten seconds before she turned on Ian and screeched, "YOU! You did this to me you big oaf. Do you have no poise?" She pushed James out of the way screaming 'move' at anyone who got in her path. Lily ran to catch up to her and followed her into the bathroom.

"How can someone be so stupid?" she was muttering to herself as she tried to dry off with a towel nest to the sink. Lily moved quietly behind her with her wand pointed directly at the back of her neck and quickly muttered a charm that should make the clasp on the chain break and fall to the ground. Instead of the clasp breaking it just made a little jiggle.

The movement caused Priscilla to look up into the mirror and saw Lily staring back at her with the thought 'Oh Shit' flying clear across her face. Priscilla turned around and tried to grab the wand out of Lily's hand while pulling her own out of her back pocket. Lily jumped back to just miss her reach but ended up hitting the wall behind her.

"Did you really think I would just let this hang around my beautiful neck unprotected? As if." She slowly inched towards Lily. 'I got to think of something. Wait. She wouldn't be that stupid would she? It's worth a shoot.'

"You know Priscilla that's very smart. I didn't think you had any ideas besides boy snatching and shoes but I guess life's just full of surprises." She started to turn so that she had more room to make her move. "But tell me, sense I'm just so horrible at fashion and everything and I guess my outfit didn't get James's attention like I'd hoped; what did I do wrong?"

That did it. Priscilla put her hands on her hips, even the one holding her wand, and burst into a list that could go on for ages about Lily's poor fashion taste. Lily took this as her moment to strike. She lunged for Priscilla's neck and ripped the rusty chain off with ease. 'I guess she is that stupid to block it from magic but not from pure human strength, hahaha.'

It didn't take long for Priscilla to fight back. She pushed Lily off of her and across the floor where she hit the bottom of the stalls. In the middle of sliding she had let go of the necklace and it slid across the floor towards the exit. 'What now?'

Meanwhile… 

Sirius, James, Remus, and Ian were all still sitting around the table. Ian had quickly gotten himself a new drink and didn't seem bothered by the loss of his other one at all. James kept looking at the door to the bathroom waiting for someone to come out. "Do you think she's alright?"

"Of course she is. All it was was a little spill. She'll get over it." Sirius dismissed the question with a wave of his hand. Remus was also starting to get a little worried. 'She should have gotten it by now.'

He nudged Sirius in the arm and pointed towards the bathrooms and said, "Why don't you go see if everything _is_ alright Padfoot?"

"Fine. Gees can't anyone do stuff themselves anymore?" As he got ready to knock on the door to see if everything was okay he heard grunts and the sound of shoes scraping against tile. Automatically his mind had thoughts that he shouldn't have had at all and would most likely scar him for the rest of his life. But after he got over that little mistake he busted through the door and saw Lily and Priscilla on opposite sides of the bathroom. 'Chick fight! Hey they got a mirror? That's not fair. Oh wait Lily just said something.'

"Sirius grab the necklace! It's next to your foot."

"No it's mine!!" Priscilla made a dive for it but Sirius grabbed it first and bolted out the door. He grabbed the sleeve of Remus's shirt and doubled back for his drink when he saw Priscilla crawling out of the bathroom with Lily grabbing her foot screaming, "RUN!! RUN!!" He passed Remus as they got out the door and down the cobbled street. He felt like he was running in slow motion by the time he saw Sarah and Nicole standing by a bench where the town is a little more spaced apart.

He turned his head to the left and saw Remus next to him. To his right he saw Ian. Then for some reason the Chariots of Fire theme song that Sarah always played when they won a match popped into his head. He stretched out his hand to a 'ready to run' Sarah.

As soon as the stone was in her hand her and Nicole took off running over a small hill that was next to the bench and into the woods. He slowed down for just a second to catch his breath when he (still in slow motion) felt something fall on his back, a very heavy something.

The music in his head suddenly stopped as Priscilla put him in a chokehold then everything seemed to speed up as he kept choking out "Uncle! Uncle!" Remus and Ian stopped and helped pull her off but she just kept coming back. Finally there was a VERY loud boom and a few of the trees at the edge of the forest seemed to bend over from the impact.

James had just now figured out what was going on and made it up to where everyone was in a big pile on the ground. He was about to yell at the guys to get off of the girl he loves when all of sudden he felt like he was being pulled off the edge of a building. His eyes flashed a brilliant white and then faded back to their normal hazel.

"Wha-? What's going on?" He looked at all of the people on the ground that were now frozen and looking up at him. All of the guys were looking up with big grins spread across their faces but Priscilla looked halfway between terrified and pissed off. "Did you do what I think you did?" he demanded.

"Umm…well that depends on what you think I did Jamie Poo." She tried to go up to him and hug him but he pushed her away and growled, "I think you manipulated me to go out with you and made me turn my back on everything I care about. You don know that we can have you expelled for use of Dark Magic. That's right you could be expelled and never could come back and call me _Jamie Poo_ EVER again!!"

Her face went deathly pale and she then pointed her finger at the boys that were still on the ground, "I will get you back for this. No matter how cute or rich you are." She then stormed off hopefully to never bug them ever again.

"Well it's about time you got back to your old self." He turned around to see a slightly out of breath Lily behind him smiling brightly with her boots in her left hand.

"And it's about time you got here." He chuckled. "You missed all the good action."

All her reply was to wave the shoes in the air while laughing.

"Speaking of action. Wasn't that a pretty big explosion? And has anyone seen the two Barbie snatchers since?"

Everyone shared an 'Oh Boy' look except for James who just stood there looking like a lost puppy. "Who? What are you guys talking about?"

Remus, Sirius, and Lily all started to sprint towards the forest while Ian held back to get James up to date. As they got a few feet inside the formally dense area they saw the pot of still boiling potion where the girls were to have disposed of the necklace. "SARAH!! NICOLE!!! Answer us please!" Lily screamed from the center of the mess while the other two searched under fallen branches.

They heard a gruff coughing as a very ashy and burnt Nicole came stumbling out from the trees. "Holy Shit Lily! What the hell did you put in that thing?" Then she was halfway to the ground when Remus appeared at her side and caught her before safely laid her on the ground.

"Nicole? Nicole?! Come on say something!" He was practically begging. She cracked open one eye and glared at him, "I just did now do you mind if (cough) I (cough) rest!!!"

"Oh. Of course I'm sorry." He tried to hide his embarrassment by looking at a very burnt piece of wood.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to be rude but I did sort of get blown up a few minutes ago." Nicole smiled up at him and he returned the favor ten fold. 'I can't stand to see him sad. Especially if I caused it.'

"What happened?" Lily asked as she checked her over for any kind of broken bones.

"Bring Sarah over here so she can explain what _she _did and cause I need to smack her."

"What did she do exactly?" Sirius asked as he waved Ian and a newly informed James over to the bombsite.

"Well we were running in here to get rid of the dooms day device," James looked at Ian and he mouthed the word 'codename' to end his confusion, "when she tripped and accidentally threw it in instead of dipped it like the instructions said to. I helped her up and for a second it just bubbled until it was practically alive. Then the next thing I know I've learned how to fly and am in a branch then the ground apparently wanted to be friends since I kissed it in the next two seconds. After that I just found you guys."

"Did you see which way she went?"

"Sorry I was a little preoccupied." sarcasm covering every word.

"She's got to be around here somewhere. Since you came out there then she must have gone over-"

"HELP!!!!" Lily stopped talking and they all, except for Remus and Nicole of course, ran towards the voice. They heard it again and it sounded like it was right next to them but they didn't see her anywhere. "SARAH?" James yelled.

"I see someone's got their sanity back." They all looked up and saw Sarah hanging on a branch in a very high branch. The only thing holding her up was the hole that went through the hood of her jacket. "I could use a little help here."

"Hang on. We'll get you down." Sirius yelled up to her. She just lazily gave him thumbs up. "She's a goner isn't she?"

Lily just rolled her eyes and levitated her, after a little bit of shaking to get her free from the limb, safely to the ground. "Could you accio my wand please. We sort of got separated in the blast. Which reminds me." She poked Lily in the head and screamed, "Who puts enough stuff to make a BOMB in a POTION?!?"

Lily just smiled and handed her, her wand back. "Well you didn't exactly follow the directions did you?" Sarah immediately stopped poking her head and quickly tried to walk away before becoming even more embarrassed. It was working pretty well till she tried to take a step.

Her leg made a crack noise and she fell over in pain. "Damn that hurts." She said through gritted teeth. Lily felt all around her leg and couldn't find any breaks but it didn't take her long to see exactly what the problem was. "Aww Jesus."

"What? What is it?" Lily just looked at her friend in sympathy.

"I think your legs dislocated. I'll need to put it back into place."

"In other words it's gonna hurt like hell." Ian added trying to be helpful. All it got him was a smack on the head from James and Remus who had just joined them along with an extremely tired Nicole.

"Thanks Ian. Thanks a lot." She rolled her eyes. "Lily, do you even know how to do that?" Sarah asked skeptically.

"Of course I do. I was the best in the class according to Madam Joyner when I took the extra nursing class last year."

'I'm not sure I want to know what they practiced on.' She thought. "Okay. What do you need me to do?"

"I just need you to relax and it would probably be best if someone held your hand." Sirius who had been right next to her the whole time immediately grabbed her left hand. She smiled up at him. "Sorry if I break your hand."

"She will. I should know." Ian pointed to her than to his hand and back again while nodding.

"Okay I'm going to count to three than- POP!"

"AHHH!! Crap, crap, crap, crap. That really hurt ya know. What happened to counting?!"

"It hurts less if you don't know it's coming."

"I beg to differ Doc." She looked up and saw that Sirius was looking at her intently. "Are you ok?"

He shook his head to bring him back to reality. "What? Oh yeah of course. If anyone should be being asked that question it's you. How you doing?"

"As good as I can be I guess." She chuckled and then turned her gaze on Nicole who was now glaring at her since she wasn't in any life-threatening situation. "Hee hee. How ya doin buddy? Have a nice flight?"

"You couldn't just walk to the cauldron. You just _had_ to be a klutz." She walked up to her and smacked her lightly on the head then walked away using Remus as a walking pillow. James and Sirius helped Sarah to her feet and after she got brushed off they started their way back into town.

"You see what lengths we go to, to keep you around mister?" Sarah joked as she ruffled James's hair.

"Yeah, yeah. I feel so loved I might just cry." He pretended to dry a tear from his face.

'He's really back. Maybe now we can- NO! You can't. It would never work out. Maybe all of this action would bring him back into his old ways and then all your hopes of having a relationship would go down the drain.' Lily kept eye contact with the ground for the net few minutes until she realized that someone was with them that should have been gone.

"Hey Ian? Don't you have a date to go to?"

"Oh shit you're right. I'll see you guys later." He waved back to them and to Nicole and Remus as he ran out of the forest and towards where ever he was meeting Alyson.

"What are we gonna do with that boy?" Sarah chuckled.

"I don't know. Put him up for adoption. I'm sure Mr. Crawford won't mind." Sirius joined in on the laughing. He saw Sarah wince beside him. He had kept their hands together and she either doesn't mind or hasn't noticed. 'And I'm not gonna give her the option of noticing if it's the later.' He picked her up and started to carry her towards town.

"Ah! What do you think you are doing?" He just smiled and said, "You're in no condition to walk so this is the next best thing, for both of us." He laughed when he saw her blush and look at her hands that were now in her lap since he was carrying her like a baby.

"You should probably put your arms around my neck so you won't fall off and put your leg out again."

"I'm perfectly fine where I am thank you very much." He threw her up a little bit and before she had even lifted a full inch from his arms she grabbed his neck. He laughed at her angry face when she realized she wasn't going to die. "Fine. I'll keep them there for now, but I won't like it." She said in an indignant tone.

"Fine but I will." There again was her blush that she hid by facing the ground and counting pinecones.

"Aww look at them. Both of them." Lily whispered to James as she motioned to Sarah and Sirius along with Nicole and Remus who were whispering things to each other.

"Yeah. They are so clueless when it comes to who likes them and who they like." Lily just nodded her head in agreement. "I bet Padfoot and Sarah are gonna get together first though." He had such a confidence in his tone that Lily couldn't help but laugh.

"I beg to differ. I think Nicole and Remus will. They've been at breaking point for over a year. They just need the right…motivation to finish the job."

"That may be true but I know Moony and he isn't very open when it comes to girls. Did you know he hasn't had a single girlfriend these entire 6 years? Besides, Padfoot never stops when he sees something he likes."

"True, very true. But I also know Sarah and she won't give into someone she's sworn to hate for the rest of eternity very easily. Nicole on the other hand hasn't had that many boyfriends either but she still will come clean with how she feels eventually and we both know that Remus would be lying if he told her he didn't feel the same way."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean he'll date her." They were both thinking of his lycanthrope and how closed off he was about it.

"Lets bet on it." James was shocked to being offered a bet from none other than Lily Evans.

"So Ms. Headgirl wants to wager does she?"

"Why yes she does Mr. Headboy. What do you say? You in or out?" She stopped walking and held out her hand for him to shake. He looked from her hand to her face, smirked and shook her hand. "Deal."

"What's the price?" He asked after they had continued walking.

"Well when I win you will have to be my servant for a week."

"Alright and when _I_ win you will…you have to let me take you out for dinner in Hogsmeade." She gaped at him. 'Oh so that was his angle.'

"Don't get me wrong," he saw that she was going to get mad, "it doesn't have to be a date or anything just me and you, two friends, at dinner."

"Alright I guess that's not so bad." They just looked ahead and could see Nicole and Remus whispering different things to each other. "I wonder what the heck they're always saying to each other."

"Nicole you are one very different girl."

"Oh really?" she raised her eyebrows. "And how is that?"

"You always stay with what you say. You don't change it just to please someone. You don't care what everyone thinks about you. They don't even know half of who you really are! It just amazes me that you don't care what people say."

"Well I don't see a reason to. Let them think what they want. What good will it do me if I go up to one of those popular people and say 'Hey guess what? You were wrong. I am sane.' I just don't let them control my life and neither should you." She said the last part in a tone that was full of meaning and sympathy.

'Oh no. What if she found out? How could she find out? One of the guys didn't tell her did they? She couldn't know cause then she would be heading for the hills instead of leaning on my arm right now. She feels like a nice little Nicole shaped arm warmer. I don't think I've ever noticed how dark her eyes are.'

He realized he had just been staring at her and quickly looked away. She continued to look at his face for a few more seconds before just burying her head into the crook of his shoulder, enjoying the mint and pine scent that could only be him.

Alyson was sitting alone on a bench in front of Madam Puddifoots waiting for Ian Crawford to pick her up for their date. 'I wonder what's taking him so long? Did I get here early? No, he said to be here at 1 and now it's 1:30. I was actually late.'

He had told her that he needed to take care of some business before he met up with her. She had told him that was fine since she needed to go birthday shopping for her brother and that they would meet up here at 1:00.

She was about to go wait inside since it was getting cold and she didn't have a jacket when she heard a clang and Ian saying sorry over and over again.

"Hey." He breathed as soon as he got in front of her. "Wow. You look pretty."

She laughed. "A man of many words I see. But thank you. You look pretty good yourself…except for the soot stain all over your nose. Where was your business in a chimney?" she asked as she wiped it off with a tissue from her pocket.

"Oh. Sorry about that but there was sort of an explosion and Nicole, and Sarah and then the tree then she went ouch...it was a mess." He heard himself rambling, he really did but it was like his mouth was a car but there were no brakes.

She just giggled at him and took his hand and started off down the street. "So did you find your brother a present?"

"Yeah I did. I'm going back home in a few weeks to give it to him. Dumbledore's really nice about all that stuff."

"Yeah I don't know a kinder or more powerful wizard anywhere. You tell your brother have a happy birthday for me." Alyson closed her eyes tightly and slowed her pace to almost a stop and breathed out a deep breath. "Are you ok?"

She opened her eyes to see him staring down at her concern written all over. "Yea I'm fine but…my family's not."

"What do you mean? Is someone sick or something?"

"No they just…how do I put this? They don't exactly approve of me dating anyone who isn't in Slytherin." She saw that he was assuming that, that meant they weren't going to go out again, so she hurriedly added, "But I don't listen to them. If they have a problem with it then they can live with that. They don't control every aspect of my life." She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. He beamed at her and when he was just about to lean in to kiss her he heard an annoyingly squeaky voice from behind him.

Alyson's eyes widened then shut. "Please just go away. Just walk away right now." When she opened her eyes however there was in fact the little jerk that, for some reason, she dated once.

There in front of them stood Austin Marshall. A 7th year Slytherin, like Alyson, who was only about 5'6 which is extremely short compared to Ian's 6'1. He had light brown hair that looked like it has always been stuck under a helmet with hazel eyes that were stuck directly onto Ian's cross face.

"What do you think you're doing with my girl Crawford?" He spat.

"Who say's she's yours? I think she can choose whoever she wants and since I'm the one who she was about to kiss I'm guessing it's me."

"Oh yeah right like she'd ever want to kiss some blood trader trash like you."

"Excuse et moi." They both looked over to the side to see Alyson glaring at both of them, mostly Austin, with her arms crossed across her chest. "I'm standing right here you know and I can speak for myself thank you very much."

She stepped in between the two bickering boys and faced Austin still with a hard glare. "Austin, I've never liked you. You're an egomaniac who thinks that you're only a respectable wizard or witch if you've got a 'pure' family to back it up. Well I can tell you right now that you're insane and I have no idea why I ever dated you. Oh wait I remember. My parents _made _me! Now if you don't mind I have a date to get back to." She stepped back and grabbed a now smug Ian's hand. "Hope to never see you again."

Just as they were walking away Ian heard Austin mutter the words, "Fine, go with that piece of garbage who hangs around filthy Mudbloods." It took him only a second to turn around and punch him square in the jaw. Everyone around them stopped what they were doing to see the action.

"Don't you ever, _ever_ say anything like that ever again do you hear me?" Austin just glared back, hatred radiating off of him in waves.

"Come on Ian lets just go."

"No! He hasn't told me if he hears me yet." Ian hadn't even turned around.

"Please." She begged. He couldn't stand to hear her sound like that so he reluctantly turned around but as soon as he faced Alyson Austin jumped on his back and tackled him to the ground. While they were wrestling on the ground Alyson was yelling at both of them to stop acting like little babies and to get off the ground. Finally Frank Longbottom stepped in and pulled Ian off the ground while one of Austin's followers Joe Huss pulled him off of him.

"That's enough! From BOTH of you!" Alyson now had a hand on each of their chests acting as a barrier.

"Get out of the way Alyson."

"Yeah you don't want your scummy boyfriend over there crying cause he got hit." Alyson abruptly took her hands off of them and slowly faced Austin. For a moment everyone thought she was going to kiss him. Instead, she slapped him across the face so hard people could hear it over the band that was playing on a corner a few blocks down.

Austin just went limp so fast that Joe almost let him drop and since Joe is not the strongest person he fell down too from the sudden weight. He was staring at her as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and drug Ian with her towards the park at the other end of Hogsmeade. Where they spent the rest of the afternoon laughing, telling stories, and kissing till they couldn't anymore.

A/N Hey ya there! How'd you like it? There was a lot in this chapter that just came to me while I was writing it like the whole Alyson's family thing for example…I had to throw in some sort of conflict there. BTW the fight with Austin is a personal war I'm in with Alyson's in real life's boyfriend so both of them are prolly gonna be mad at me tomorrow. HAHA!! I would love to see their face when they read this. HEY AUSTIN!! THAT'S FOR BOWLING!!

_**Yet again I'm sorry for the delay and I'll try to put one up as soon as possible.**_

_**Poll**__** (first one EVER!)**_

_**Most liked Couple**_

_**1.JxL**_

_**2.AxI**_

_**3.NxR**_

_**4.SxS**_

_**Song's for this chap.**_

_**Chariots of fire theme**_

_**Foggy London Town – Michel Buble**_

_**Rip It Up – Jet**_

_**Girlfriend – Avril Lavigne **_

_**Tell me what you think. If you don't review I won't do these anymore and I won't update either!! K?**_


	8. Admissions, I'm Sorry's, and Visions

AN: I AM SOOO SORRY! For all you dedicated readers I know you guys probably want to be chasing me out of Fanfiction with pitchforks right about now. Listen I hate long update periods just as much as most of you. I have been grounded a lot recently. No I'm not turning into one of those rebellious teens…I've always been one. My parents are just now realizing it. Hahaha I crack myself up. Anywho…crap I'm gonna get smacked for that…just…hope you enjoy heehee.

Disclaimer- 

_**Me-YAY! I have tons of money, have a British accent, and created the fantabulous world of Harry Potter! (smiles happily)**_

_**Nicole- Umm actually that would be J.K. Rowling…not you.**_

Me- (lip quivers) Well geeze Nicole! Thanks for squashing my dream. WAH!! 

_**Nicole- Yeah…I can live with that.**_

Sarah was now fast asleep in Sirius's arms and looked quite comfortable. 'I don't know why she won't just give me a chance.' He stared at her mouth that was partly open and could feel her steady breathing against his chest.

He got all the way up to her bed and leaned down to let her onto the comforter when he realized she wasn't exactly letting go. He laid the majority of her body on the bed and reached behind him to pry her hands from around his neck, unwillingly of course. She eventually let go and rolled over onto her side and curled up into a little ball like a roly-poly.

He chuckled slightly as she gave out a sigh of contentment into her pillow. He was just about to leave when he heard her whisper his name. He froze thinking she had woken up and was going to be mad that he had dared to go into her personal space. Instead she rolled over facing him now, still asleep, and whispered in the same small voice, 'I'm Sorry.'

He stared at her for a moment and realized she was dreaming…apparently about him. She frowned for a moment and he leaned back down towards her and kissed her lightly on the lips. It was such a soft kiss it could have been from a butterfly. "I'm sorry too."

With that he turned towards the doorway debating on how to feel. Sad that this might be the only time they would ever kiss, or elated that deep down she didn't hate him as much as she let on.

SARAH'S P.O.V

We were about halfway back to the common rooms when I finally let sleep over come me. I couldn't help it; his arms were just so soft yet sturdy. I couldn't shake off the feeling of being completely safe and…content. I don't know why I would want to shake it off but I guess since it was SIRIUS'S arms we're talking about here then I got a little concerned about why I was feeling like this.

I knew things had been different between us lately but I just can't tell where exactly all this change is taking us. It's not necessarily a bad change just different and I'm not so sure if different is good right now.

We have always been the two that have hated each other non-stop. Well, besides James and Lily and they became even a little bit more than civil with each other…great another thing to put in the balance of all things confusing!

All my thoughts just wore me out, along with the fact that in the past two hours I had wrestled two anorexic chicks, made the hundred yard dash towards a potion that ended up sending me all the way up into a tree, getting my leg popped back into place and then getting my breath taken away by being in Sirius's arms the whole way back…been a pretty eventful afternoon if you ask me.

In the end I ended up dreaming a pretty weird dream.

I was walking through Hogsmeade and nobody else was around. It seemed as if everyone had just left because…it was too painful to be there. Everything looked gray and bland, not the usual vibrant and festive feel I was used to.

_I looked at myself and saw that I was practically glowing. 'This is interesting.' _

_I heard a soft whimper that I couldn't tell if it was a dog or a person. It seemed to be echoing from somewhere at the other end towards the park. I started going towards the sound. It just sounded so sad. I had to go and help whatever poor creature was in such pain. _

_I felt something brush against my legs and realized I was wearing a very bright white sundress that looked like it should be worn by an angel in a painting. An imaginary breeze was blowing it in waves against my knees._

_I heard the sound again but much closer than before. I immediately moved towards it but felt more as if I was floating rather than walking. When I reached the place where the park was supposed to be I was shocked to see the same layout and shape but instead of the benches and different stepping-stones I was used to I saw dozens of…graves._

_I saw a figure of what looked to be a man bent over one stone in particular. He was the one making the awful noise. I passed different stones as I walked towards him. They were all people I knew Alice & Frank, a few other people from other houses I knew from class but what really caught my attention were the headstones on either side of the one the man was in front of. _

_To the left there was James & Lily, and on the right there was Remus and Nicole and Ian and another headstone that seemed cracked in the middle. I couldn't breathe. I was inhaling but it seemed like I was breathing in tear gas since all that resulted was tiny drops of salt-water leak from my eyes. _

_I never cried! It just wasn't what I did. This was all wrong! None of this was real; I just had to remember that! It's all just a dream!_

_I had to stop my mental berating when it finally dawned on me who the man in front of me was. It was Sirius. _

_It all clicked into place. Why he was here. Whose stone he was in front of. The dress. We would all be buried together, and since everyone else was…I couldn't even think it, and he was right there…the last stone was_…_me. I was in the dream as an angel. _

_If this had been under any other circumstances, I would've laughed at the irony of ME being an angel, what with my dreary past. But this wasn't other circumstances._

_I slowly walked towards him and rested my cheek on his shoulder and realized I had still been crying. He didn't even seem to notice my presence at all. He gave a shuddering gasp and I looked to see if he was ok. _

_It was then that I notice what he was wearing, an Azcaban prison uniform. I started to feel even more tears fall down my already wet cheeks. All I could think about was how badly I had treated him these past few years and this just was a harsh reality that I might not be able to take it back, even though now I wish I could more than ever before. "I'm Sorry."_

_I know that's a horrible and pathetic word choice but it was all I was able to say without crying. To my surprise he took another shuddering gasp and slowly turned towards me. His eyes found mine and stared for a moment not believing it was really me. Then his eyes took on a look of acceptance and whispered, "I'm sorry too." _

_I felt as if my body was slowly appariating, but not just to another place but to another world entirely. Sirius slowly turned back to the gravestones and bowed his head, shielding his face from me. _

Then I woke up. Cold sweat was making all of my clothes stick to me. But that wasn't what was bothering me. What was bothering me was that this felt just as real as the 'vision' I had of me and Bellatrix when I was flying. The only conclusion I had was to talk to someone I could trust and had more experience in abnormalities than most.

Dumbledore.

Remus's POV

We were almost to the castle when I felt the strong urge to go somewhere else. Anywhere else. I turned towards Nicole who seemed to have been deep in thought and said, before I even realized what I was saying, "Do you want to take a walk?"

She looked amused as she answered, "Isn't that what we've been doing for the past half hour?" I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks from embarrassment. She laughed that laugh that I love and said, "Gosh you get embarrassed easily don't you?"

"Umm, well I (cough) guess I do. But what I meant was do you want to go for a walk without sleeping beauty up there?" I pointed to the now sleeping Sarah who was in Sirius's arms.

"Yeah I don't want to hear her snoring any more than I have too." We quickly headed back outside and mechanically started to head for the lake. For a while we just walked around aimlessly when I got the feeling that I wasn't exactly in charge of my own actions.

I defiantly wasn't when I stopped moving and since Nicole had still been holding onto my arm she ended up tripping over her own feet. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." That was a lie. "Well I mean nothing much." Lie again. "Ok really the thing is, is that the thing you said back in Hogsmeade has been bugging me."

"What thing? I said a lot of things."

"When you said that I shouldn't care what other people think either. It just seemed like there was a double meaning to that and I was wondering what exactly it was." I moved my arm from her grasp and faced her head on as if waiting for her to admit that she knew what I was and she just wanted to drive the monster in me crazy by sticking around this long.

Her beautiful dark eyes got wider and I could see the conflict raging in them on what to say. The lengthy silence continued on until she tore her eyes away and stared at her hands by her sides.

"I think you know exactly what I meant by that Remus." She lifted her head back up with more fierceness in her eyes than I had ever seen. I returned it just as ferociously determined to get her to admit it.

I decided that she must not have known. She just wanted to find out and that comment before had just been one of her attempts to figure out my puzzle. I know Nicole is a very determined and curious girl so if she picked up on something abnormal about me than she would spend all her time trying to figure out what caused it. That's just the way she is.

I would tell her. I decided that I would put her curiosity to rest. What she did then would be up to her.

I was prepared for what she was going to say. I could take her leaving (extremely painfully but taken none the less). I could take her just deciding we won't be around each other anymore than necessary but I just couldn't take her hating me. I wouldn't be able to go on knowing that all the kindness she's shown me so far has just been a façade so she could find out what I really was.

I wasn't expecting what came next.

"I know that you're a werewolf." She must have seen the immediate shock on my face because she immediately continued. "Don't worry! I haven't and won't tell anyone! You can trust me." She gently placed one of her small hands on my shoulder.

"How…how could you…what?"

She seemed to have been expecting this question because she immediately started explaining. "Well Lily was the first to figure out something was up. She noticed how often you were going to go see your mom or something like that and then she realized it was always once a month. It wasn't until about fourth year that we paid enough attention to notice that it always fell on the full moon. We also noticed that the boys would mysteriously disappear that night. That one was mostly noticed by Sarah. But we eventually put two and two together and…there it is, we know." She finished with a stony expression that was impossible to read.

"So…Sarah and Lily…they know t-too?" I couldn't even finish a complete sentence.

"Yes."

How did this happen without me noticing?! Surely they would have done something about it when they found out. There was only one other thing I was confused about.

"And you're not scared? You don't think that I'm some hideous freak that should be shot?"

Instantly she looked angry, sad, sympathetic, and slightly offended all at once. "Remus John Lupin. Do you really think of yourself that way?" my only answer was to lower my head in shame. "I don't see why because I see standing in front of me one of the most accomplished wizards of his year-no the century. I also see someone who has friends that care about him and would do anything to protect him from _everything_. And most of all I see someone that I can't stand to see upset even in the slightest and want to be close to all the time."

I stood there dumbfounded. I couldn't think of anything to say. She looked, if possible, even more beautiful now than ever before and I knew exactly why. She accepted me for who I am. Since no words could some up for how much I cared about her I did the only other thing I could…I kissed her.

Nicole's POV

OH MY MERLIN!!! Am I asleep? I must be because Remus Lupin kissing me could only happen in my dreams. At first I was too shocked to do anything except to just stand there like an IDIOT until I finally came to my senses and kissed him back.

I swear I could hear the Hallelujah chorus.

I could feel my heart beat so fast it felt like it would come flying out of my chest at any moment. I don't know how long we stood there for but I do know that it was sunset when we started and dark when we finished.

When finally broke apart to take a breath and I realized we were now about 4 meters closer to the lake and on the ground. How did that happen?

I stared into his eyes and saw relief, acceptance, and over all happiness. I beamed up at him and he returned the smile plus a billion. For some reason even unknown to myself I just burst out laughing. I just couldn't keep in my happiness and if it was coming it out it was coming out in a laugh.

He started to laugh too and pretty soon we were both rolling on the grass laughing so hard hardly any noise was coming out. We finally collected ourselves and leaned in for another kiss when we were so RUDELY interrupted by a screaming voice coming towards us in the general direction of the castle.

LILY POV

We were just entering the castle when I realized that Nicole, Remus, Sarah, and Sirius were no where to be found. "James, where did everybody go?"

He started to look around like a dog looking for a squirrel that just went up a tree. I guess he didn't notice that they were gone either. "Oh umm…I don't exactly know. Oh well, they probably just went off to go be_alone_." He said the last part with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows. I don't know what possessed me to do it but I actually GIGGLED!

I mean I _do not_ giggle. Lily Evan's doesn't giggle, especially when James says something. OH FORGET IT!!!! I can't do this anymore! I just need to accept that I probably…don't exactly hate…disagree with…umm, ugh I LIKE JAMES POTTER!

There I said it. Ok not really but I thought it so it still counts to me. You know what they say, 'the first step to solving the problem is admitting you have one.' I don't think liking James is a real problem per say but I defiantly need to think about how I'm going to handle this.

"Lily? Lillllly? You in there?" She could feel the blood rushing to her face as she realized that she had been staring at James's face the whole time her mind was sorting out her musing.

"Sorry 'bout that I just sort of dazed off there. What were you saying?"

"I was asking if you wanted to go sit in the courtyard over there and maybe someone will show up." He was looking at her like she was some one who might fall over at any moment.

'Great now I scare him. That's just the cherry on top of the cake.'

They went and sat on a stone bench that was cracked up the sides. With the moon shining in through the cracked and decrepit old roof it made it seem like they were in a fantasy dream. Lily felt like she should be wearing a medieval flowing dress like the one Helena Ravenclaw wears.

There was a beautiful tree that was slightly curved over just to cast enough of a shadow onto them to create a secretive setting. 'I can't believe I never come over here. It's so beautiful.'

When the last thin cloud that had been covering a corner of the moon moved away a beautiful shimmer came from the branches and then hundreds of tiny silver flowers burst out across the entire tree. Lily looked up and just smiled as some of the petals fell onto her face.

'God she's beautiful. What I would do just to have her kiss me.' James was mesmerized by her smile and her melodious laugh. He stared at her until she looked up and blushed as she realized that she must have looked like a stupid five year old sitting there giggling like that.

"Umm…listen James, now that your back to yourself…what do you remember about being under the spell? I mean do you remember how you felt and did you even know what was going on?"

"Actually I remember most stuff. For example I remember all the lessons we had, all the Quidditch practices and little stuff like that. The parts where I really felt like I had no control were whenever Priscilla was around. It was almost like some clone was in my body controlling everything I did. Then when she wasn't around and someone brought her up it was more like there was another voice in my head convincing me of all the thoughts I had about her and that all my previous opinions didn't matter. That they were all lies."

Lily had slid closer to him and both their hands were barely touching in between them. James had been staring at his lap during his little speech and just looked up to see two beautiful green orbs staring intently into his chocolate brown ones.

"That sounds horrible. I can't imagine what it would be like to have no say in what I did." She leaned her head just slightly to the side. "But do you remember what we had talked about before you went under the spell? You know, about the whole lets be friends thing? Or is that just fuzzy to you?"

"No, no I remember that most of all. And if I remember correctly we weren't doin too shabby a job of it, were we? Haha." He nervously rubbed the back of his head and smiled as if he were trying not to be too upset. "I'm sorry that had to get all screwed up."

"Yeah, but hey, we could still work on it. Pick up where we left off eh?"

They slid so close to each other that if they moved any closer they would be conjoined. There lips only centimeters apart and closing when they heard…

"AHH!! Oh shit. Ow! They really need signs for these things!!"

They jumped apart so fast that James ended up falling onto the ground making a few silver petals float into the air. He was so shocked at his descent that he stared dumfounded at nothing and Lily found this absolutely hilarious.

Her laughter shook him out of his stupor and made him smirk evilly at her and tickled her till they were both on the ground. He was all over her waiting for her to finally give into his 'mighty tickling powers' when there was yet another interruption.

"Oh geez. Just get a room already." They looked up to see an annoyed and impatient Sarah looking down at them with oddly enough, a silver boot stuck on her wrist.

James pulled Lily to her feet and quickly set her down on the bench when she started to sway from being brought up too fast. "Nice fashion statement Sarah. I know big bracelets are in and all but I don't think they meant_that_ big." James just chuckled as she childishly stuck her tongue out at him.

"I would kick your ass, but I need both of you to get up off your giggly butts and come with me." She started tapping her foot like a jackrabbit while they just stared at her.

"Why? Where are we going? And why is there a boot on your wrist?"

"Ugh! Liiiiily! I just need you guys to come with me to go talk to Dumbledore about my vision thing 'cause I think I just had another one and I am absolutely not going to let it happen. The boot thing is because I tripped over _another_ suit of armor and it didn't exactly feel like getting off so I had to use force. But really though we need to go NOW!"

It was then that Lily saw the tear stains on her cheeks and that her eyes were all red and swollen. "Oh my gosh! You were crying! It must have been bad. Come here." She outstretched her arms and Sarah willingly fell into them.

James just stared at the girl in Lily's arms with sympathy and curiosity. 'I may not know Sarah extremely well but I know her better than most girls. For her to be this upset about something it has to be devastating."**(Let's just say that Ian told him about Sarah's little vision but gave the choppier version) **

"Alright," Sarah said as she wiped the few extra tears that managed to escape off her face. "C'mon, let's go find Remus, Nicole and Sirius. You wouldn't happen to know where they are would you?"

"No, we just came and sat in here when Sirius carried you up to the room and the other two must have snuck off while we were walking back." Lily answered her while rubbing soothing circles on her back trying to calm down her panic.

"Well we need to find them, and soon."

Ian and Alyson were walking back in the front doors. He had his arm wrapped around her shoulders and she had her head resting comfortably on his chest. "I think you made him rethink his ego size after that punch." Ian still couldn't believe that such a little person could pack so much punch.

Alyson burst out laughing to the point where she would have fallen over if it weren't for him holding her up. "Yeah I bet he'll be keeping his mouth shut for quite a while. I did a good job didn't I?"

"Oh yea. I'm gonna have to start calling you the champ now haha." He affectionately pulled her closer to him and kissed the top of her head. They continued down the main hall towards the Slytherin dungeons when they heard three sets of squeaking shoes sliding around the corner then a loud "IAN!! Ian, wait up!"

Both of them spun around to see Lily, James and then Sarah in the front running down the corridor towards them. "Whoa, where's the fire people?" Ian asked as Sarah ran straight into his arms as a break.

"Sorry to end your date so quickly but you really need to come with us." She panted as James and Lily nodded their heads behind her.

"Oh umm…" Ian looked nervously in Alyson's direction silently asking her permission to leave. He was actually kind of scared if she got angry now after he'd seen what she did when she got testy.

"Go on. I'll just catch up with you tomorrow." She smiled a sad smile but a smile nonetheless. She went to take off his jacket but he quickly put his hand on hers and pulled it back over her shoulder. "Keep it. I'll get it back eventually."

This time her smile was all happy. They shared a brief goodbye kiss while Lily and James laughed silently at Sarah's gagging motions. When all goodbyes were said they made their way out the front door to look for Nicole and Remus.

BACK TO NICOLE & REMUS

That annoying voice happened to belong to none other than Sarah. She was sprinting towards them from the open doors at speed Nicole had only seen her use when she was running from blowing up the Slytherins brooms before their practice.

"NICOLE!! REMUS!!" She finally reached the two and then stopped her screaming when she saw how close they were and then she got a very smug smile on her face. "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't see that you two were…busy. Normally I would leave now (Nicole made a coughing noise that sounded like yeah right but Sarah just glared at her and continued) BUT I do need you two to come with me and the rest of us."

Remus leaned around her to see Lily, James, and Ian making a more casual pace towards them across the lawn. "Why? What's going on?" Sarah rolled her eyes and barked back, "I don't have enough patience to tell it again so you'll find out when we get to Dumbledore's office."

The others came up to the little gathering and James raised his eyebrows at the distance between the two lovebirds on the ground. "And what do we have here?" Ian asked as he smirked at them knowing that he would never let them forget this.

"Oh I just found them like this. I think they were about to kiss when we came along." Sarah said in her 'too innocent' voice.

"Hahaha. I do believe that means I win our little bet." Lily whispered in James's ear as they all made their way back inside.

"Hmmm…now all we need is Sirius. Where is he anyway?" Sarah started turning around in a circle as if expecting him to pop out of a corner and say 'here I am.'

What do ya know he turns the corner and says, "Here I am."

'Whoa…that was just freaky.'

"Oh god, please don't tell me I have another power?!" she mumbled.

"Umm what?" she looked around to see everyone staring at her. "Did I say that out loud?" They all nodded. "…oh…whoops."

"I just meant how did you just pop up when we were looking for you?"

"Oh that. I was up in the astronomy tower and saw you guys all out on the lawn and when I saw Sarah practically sprint back to the castle I thought I'd come see what you guys were doing."

"Oh. Well now that the gang's all here can we _please_ find out what this is all about?!" Nicole very impatiently mumbled. 'I am still royally pissed about the interruption.'

As if sensing her annoyance Remus casually grabbed her hand and gave it a slight squeeze. She squeezed back and relaxed instantly.

"I am not repeating myself for the millionth time so let's just get to Dumbledore and then we'll talk about it." Sarah looked like she was about to be sick from stress and anxiety.

'What could have possibly happened in the short time I've been away?' Sirius pondered as the group made their way up to the gargoyle.

"Licorice Snaps." Everyone looked at Ian curiously after he said the password. When he noticed he simply said, "What? I get in trouble, so do you."

They all just marched up the spiral staircase and paused at the large oak door. Ian raised his hand to knock when the door flew open to reveal the old wizard himself sitting behind his desk.

"I've been expecting you."

_AN-_ _**Yet again I apologize for my stupidness in the not updating thing. I am actually grounded at the moment and the only reason this is going up is because my FAVORITIST person in the whole entire world Nicole, a.k.a Dramaqueen1193, a.k.a Remus's love interest in this particular story (she's probably laughing right bout now) is posting this for me. She's also my beta btw! So if I can get another chapter finished before my sentence is lifted then she'll be posting for me. Also if you review I'll try and message back as soon as possible. Can we please shoot for 10 reviews? If not I might not keep going and just make it for Alyson and Nicole. They defiantly won't mind as long as they find out what happens to them Hahaha. **_

_**Yet again I'm sorry and I'll try my best. **__****_

_**!!Peace Y'all!! **_

SARAH


	9. Revisits, sunrisessunsets,starting over

_**A/N I apologize once again for taking so long especially with that cliffy at the end. I hope I didn't torture anyone with too long of a wait. I'll write more about news with this story at the end. So without further ado…The Beginning part nine.**_

_**Disclaimer **_

_**Sarah – man I love writing about this stuff like I own it…(sigh)**_

_**Remus – well sorry buddy but…you don't**_

_**Sarah – I know…you don't have to remind me**_

_**Remus – yea I do…that's the whole point of you putting this up here…so it tells people **_

_**that you don't own it…duh**_

_**Sarah- …shut up . **_

_Tick tock tick tock_

Back and forth, back and forth. Sirius eyes could not be torn away from the wall behind Dumbledore's desk where a pendulum was taunting him. 'Will it _never_ stop?!'

Remus was scanning the group of teenagers around him with a bored grimace. He saw Ian leaning against the wall to his left behind Nicole who was sitting on the arm on one of the chairs Dumbledore had conjured up for them that he was sitting in. He passed over the empty desk before him and to his right saw Lily and James whispering quietly to one another while throwing quick glances at Sarah who was sitting on the right arm of Sirius chair. She was intently staring out the window, by the headmaster's desk, not really seeing anything but seemed more to be lost in terrible thought.

He continued to gaze but had to do a double take at Sirius's expression. He highly resembled that of a dog watching something interesting. He half expected a tail to pop out of the back of the chair he was sitting in.

A swift kick to his shin diverted his attention very quickly. Sirius glared at the smirking boy who just leaned further into his chair. Sirius casually stretched his arms upward while flicking him off. This started a mini, sitting down, slap war.

Nicole had been having a staring contest with a statue on the other side of the room when she felt the chair start moving around. She turned around and saw Sirius and Remus in a sort of chokehold over the space between their chairs.

Rolling her eyes she separated the bickering boys with a quick parting spell. "Boys." She sighed as she directed her attention to the staircase in the far right corner of the room.

Dumbledore briskly descended the wrought iron steps and stepped around the chairs over to a cabinet with a large rusty padlock on it, in the back left corner.

"I'm sorry it took me so long but I have not had to use this in sometime. Until recently I haven't felt the need to lock it up. But times are changing, as are precautions." He apologized as he fumbled with the key ring in his hand.

The group made there way over to him just as the doors were finally opened. Inside was a stone basin that had what seemed like silver vapor strands swimming around inside it. Ian being the smart one that he is said, "Haha they sort of look like ghost worms." This resulted in a swift smack on the head from Nicole who looked to have done it more out of instinct than annoyance.

"Umm not to sound stupid here but…what is the worm dish for exactly?"

"It's a pensieve, Ian. People put their memories into the pensive and go through them as if you were back in the memory but no one in the memory can sense you. It helps you remember details that you couldn't remember in your mind." Lily said mechanically as she ran her fingers around the rim.

"Very good Ms. Evans. Yes, we will be using this to review what happened in Ms. Halman's dream, or vision, to put all our minds at ease. Now if you would all just hold tightly-"

"NO!"

He stopped abruptly and everyone followed his gaze of surprise over to a shocked Sarah, who had her hands covering her mouth. "I'm sorry but I don't think that they should go with us sir. I'd rather that they not know the finer details." Her eyes were practically pleading.

Immediately protests arose. "There's no way we won't find out! I mean if it's got _you_ of all people _this_ upset over it then it HAS to be big!" Nicole screamed at her. Sarah didn't break her eyes from Dumbledore's.

"Sarah please. We don't want you going through this alone. We can help." Lily soothed from her side.

"Yea who knows? This could all be just a bad dream!" Ian said hopefully but didn't sound as if he fully believed himself.

"No. There's no way any of you could help by seeing it. It would just make all of you paranoid." She started to smirk. "And we all know that if Lily has one more thing besides NEWTs to think about she'll explode."

Lily rolled her eyes while everyone snickered at her expense. "I think I could handle it." She pouted.

"Now I do think Ms. Halman has a point. I think it might be best if it was just the two of us that went." Dumbledore had spoken so there was no arguing it now. They were going alone.

Dumbledore put his wand to Sarah's temple and drew out a long silver 'worm', as Ian so uniquely put it, then placed in the stone basin. "Sarah," Sirius lightly grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face him, "are you sure you don't want someone to come with you?"

She saw that he was really hoping that she would say no and take him with her. Why he would want to come she had no idea but…she stuck by her point. "It'll be fine. Trust me." She gave him a small smile; it didn't convince him, or herself.

She took Dumbledore's hand and off they went.

Dumbledore was staring at the same gravestones that Sarah had stared at hours before. She could see herself putting her hand on Sirius's shoulder and telling him she was sorry. She could see that dress that seemed to float around her like a spirit. But worst of all she could still see those names on the stones before them. And it _still_ made her sick.

She decided to look somewhere else and what she found didn't make her feel any better. Ruins of what used to be, and in present time is, a fun and beautiful place. Black crows were flying across the sky. Shadows from a non-existent sun crossing the trees around them. But something caught her eye that she hadn't seen before.

A hooded figure slunk into the shadows. Sarah ran after the figure. She heard Dumbledore call for her but it was as if something was pulling her in the direction of the man; yes, she decided that it had to be a man, with the way he walked and the square shoulders.

Wait…she knew that walk. Where did she know that walk?

She made it to the figure just a few meters in and got in front of him. She gasped in realization.

Snape.

He was crying, he looked absolutely distraught, and for a moment she almost felt sorry for him. That is, until she saw his arm. He pulled up the cloaks folds over his forearm and ran his finger down the tattoo that symbolized where his allegiances truly lie. He was a deatheater, supporter of Voldemort himself.

She was about to ghost smack him when she felt herself floating away. It started out as a light tug but soon turned into an outright yank. She suddenly found herself smacking a foot.

"Umm…this isn't the forest anymore is it?"

The owner of the beaten appendage, who happened to be James, picked her up and set her right. "No, you would be back in Dumbledore's office and smacking my feet…care to explain?" he smirked at her.

"Not really." She briskly brushed off her robes and turned to find an amused and slightly confused Dumbledore raising an eyebrow at her.

"What, may I ask; did you run into the forest for Ms. Halman?"

"I saw him professor! He was standing on the side of the forest just staring at us then started walking in and I followed him, and he stopped, and he was crying, and, and, an…yea!" Sarah practically wailed at him.

"Well…I'm just basking in the glow of that informational speech." Remus sarcastically mumbled.

"Professor. It was Severus Snape."

There was a chorus of gasps and growls from the remaining students. Lily's face automatically paled and had to lean on the bookcase behind her for support. Severus used to be one of her very close friends. When no one else would talk to her at home he would be there. He was also the one to tell her what she was…a witch.

"What does that git have to do with this?" Sirius growled.

"He was watching you! He was standing there, just staring at them, like you. When I followed him he started to cry. He looked so sad…then I saw it." Her sympathetic stare quickly changed to pure malice as she turned back towards the Headmaster. "Professor he had the dark mark!"

More complaints arose.

"I always knew he was a dumb jerk off but I still thought he had enough sense not to go that low." James groaned from next to Lily who looked torn between disgust, sadness, and defeat. Nicole saw her emotions rush across her face and tried her best to keep anyone else from noticing, knowing that Lily would be questioned before she was ready.

"Sir, you don't look very surprised." Nicole cautiously noted.

Dumbledore's face had become a mask of complete indifference. "No I can't say I am. Sarah I do believe what you saw may be more of a sign of what is to come. Not necessarily a vision. But, with Severus, now having this subject breached I think I will be keeping closer tabs with Mr. Snape."

He closed the cabinet doors and locked it up. After placing the key on his desk and leaning as far into his chair as possible he calmly said, "You may all leave," Everyone made a move for the door. "Except for you Ms. Halman."

Sarah paused and turned back around towards the desk. The rest left through the door after glances at the now seemingly younger looking brunette making her way over to a chair. Sirius was the last to leave and shared a quick glance with her as he shut the door.

"Now Ms. Halman I think it was very wise of you to suggest the others stay behind. If they had seen what we did in that memory they would have become paranoid or just plain panicky. Even though I have to admit, they are some of the braver pupils, seeing ones death is never easy." He leaned across the desk with his hands folded as if he was praying, his half-moon spectacles tilted a little more downwards then normal.

"Now, are _you _alright?"

Sarah just sat there staring straight ahead at the man who she has held for the past seven years, the highest respect. _Was_ she all right? She didn't even know.

"I-…I'm not sure."

'Great! I'm gonna die before I hit thirty and when I now know I have less time then ever to speak my peace I can't even TALK!!"

"Perfectly reasonable response." He waited for her to say something else that might say how she's feeling.

"I think that I always sort of expected to die doing something for the cause of stopping Voldemort. I never could see myself as an old lady just sitting around doing nothing but sew and bake…all in all I'm not really surprised. Just slightly terrified." A shuddering non-humorous laugh escaped her lips.

"Yes, knowing how long you have to live is very disturbing to say the least."

"No, I mean it is, but that's not what scares me most." She denied.

"Well then what is?" Genuine curiosity was in his eyes.

"Just knowing that I'm not gonna be around to make sure my friends are safe. They've always been there for me and vice versa. If I can't be there and helping them then…I don't know but it just doesn't sound right."

Dumbledore slowly nodded his head and smiled a small smile. "And that my dear," he got up and placed a hand on her shoulder, "is why you are a Gryffindor."

The rest of the crew had headed back to the Head's commons and sat around the fire. "What do you think her vision was about?" Nicole asked from the comfort of Remus's arms.

"I don't know. But it had to have been bad to get that kind of reaction out of Sarah." Lily commented while sitting next to James on the couch in front of the fire. "What do you think Sirius?" James asked to his left where Sirius sat staring only at the flames. Ian had already decided to go see if Alyson was still up using the marauders map.

He was about to reply when the frame swung up and in came a tear stained Sarah through its passage. Lily and Nicole immediately ran up to her and engulfed her into a massive hug.

Cries like "Are you okay?" (Lily)

"What the hell?! Do you know how freaked you got us?"(Nicole)

"Please say something." (Lily)

"Let the girl breathe Lily."(Nicole)

"GUYS! I'm fine! But I won't be for long if I don't get some oxygen." They quickly backed away and gave her space. She gave them a smile but it reached nowhere near her eyes.

"Alright down to business." Nicole suddenly got extremely serious look and pushed her down onto the couch next to James. "Spill. What was that vision about?"

"Nothing alright. Just forget about it. I shouldn't have bothered y'all with it in the first place." She tried to get up but to no use since she was immediately pushed back down.

"Bull shit! Now tell us what made you so upset. It obviously had something to do with us or you wouldn't have bothered to get us. We have a right to know." Everyone was shocked by Lily's outburst. She rarely ever cursed.

Sarah knew that she only threw in the 'we have a right' bit so she would feel obligated to tell them. She had another thing coming.

"Lily if I tell you what I saw then it would change your outlook on your future so drastically that you might just not get it back. It's too late for me to forget what I saw. Trust me if I had, had the choice I wouldn't have looked at all. Now my priorities are all flipped around and I'm not going to bring you the same discomfort!"

She quickly pushed herself off the couch and rushed up to the girl's half of the dorm. After the slam of the door was heard the rest of the group all just sat quietly pondering just how horrible this dream, vision…thing really was until they, one by one, headed on their own up to bed.

As Lily and Nicole slipped into their room the lights had already been put out and the form of a huddled body under Sarah's sheets was slightly visible in the small stream of light coming in from the hallway. They silently decided to just go to bed without disturbing her since she obviously did not want to be bothered.

What they hadn't figured was how close she was to just asking them to ask her once more so she could finally crack and share the burden she carried.

The next morning the sun so rudely intruded upon Nicole's confined sleeping space. She stubbornly pulled the sheets tighter over her head in a vain attempt at keeping the morning from arriving and letting her sleep a few more hours.

She eventually gave up and surrendered to that hateful thing called time. As she slowly stood she wondered what day it was and if she was the last in the shower again until she noticed Sarah's sheets pulled back and her trunk's insides flung about her space.

Just to see if she had slept in _extremely_ late that she was up even after SARAH that she checked Lily's bed but saw it's occupant still quietly slumbering without a care in the world.

'_What is that girl up to that she would get up this early?'_

It was then that the events of the night previous invaded her mind and she grew a somber expression across her brow. She leaned over her friend's trunk and noticed that her portable little radio she always brought and her special flying grip gloves were gone.

'_She's probably doing some crazy stunts to get her mind off everything.' _She sighed.

She slowly got her things together to take a shower and on her way casually stopped by the now brightly lit window and gazed across the landscape of Hogwarts. _'I hope she'll be alright.'_

She was unstoppable. She was untouchable. She was completely free with no boundaries whatsoever. She wasn't scared.

Sarah flew at neck breaking speeds over the forbidden forest and then back across the glistening lake multiple times before she finally slowed to watch the sunrise.

She had paused above the highest point of the tallest tower in the school and lightly balanced the tip of her boot, still covered in wet grass from her hike to the Quidditch pitch earlier to fly through the hoops, on the point of the rod sticking from the top of the tower.

How come all life couldn't be one great sunrise?

She knew why.

Because eventually all life had to have a sunset. Life couldn't always be just beginning. It had to end sometime. She just didn't know if she was ready to have it end for her so soon.

There were hundreds of people underneath the tip of her boot at this very moment. Some were coming up with the sunrise…and others were coming drastically closer to their own sunsets.

A small trickle of wetness slipped down her cheek.

If only her friends knew what she knew then they could appreciate this sunrise, and every other to follow, with as much caring as she did right then. Oh how she wished she could just move on from this and be done with it.

Maybe quit the burden at all and end it now. She looked down from where she was perched and saw _just _how high up she really was.

'_Well that would _surely_ speed up my day wouldn't it?'_

And for some reason…she started to laugh. And laugh…and laugh…and laugh some more. She kept laughing till it physically hurt and she had to bend over slightly. Somewhere during her hysterics she had started to cry. She was so confused how she was feeling so happy at a time like this but at the same time…never more certain.

She stopped laughing and just smiled as she quickly wiped her eyes, which were surely red.

The sun was level with her eyes now.

That was it!!! She was moving on. Just forget about it and get done with it hahaha. Perfectly reasonable. No one could judge her because they knew nothing about why she was feeling the way she was.

No one knew the cause.

It would blow over. Sure there may be some talk around for a while…but nothing that wouldn't blow over soon enough. She pushed the broom slightly higher to the point where her foot would casually float above the rod it was placed upon.

The only thing keeping her up.

'_Now just let go.'_

And she did.

Falling, falling, falling. The ground was coming closer and closer to the point where she was sure she could almost smell the new dew covered grass smell.

Then………

she quickly, and tightly, pulled up on the handle and soared high again past the top of the castle toward the sky.

'_That's it. I'll move on. But by just being me. Ahahaha.'_

She flew back around for a while more 'till it was time to show everyone the new and _together_, not improved, Sarah Halman.

In the Great Hall Sirius was half asleep in the marmalade. He had been mid reach for the sticky substance when he had thoughts of the night before. How he had been up half the night thinking about what possibly could be in the vision Sarah had seen how it had anything to do with him.

But he mostly just thought about how she looked at him when he asked her to go into the pensive with her. She had looked so lost and confused. It was so weird seeing her like that.

She was normally the one who was strong and stable. The one everyone looked to when they were lost and confused. And in that one instant he saw that she needed someone then. He really wanted to be that someone but knowing how little progress they'd made since they had decided to be civil that, that was highly unlikely to occur.

With all these thoughts going through his head the night before you can see why he didn't get much sleep and how even just the reminder of it made him pass out instantly.

Well…it made sense to him.

So as he was inching closer to the jar as he slept, James, who had been sitting next to him watching this ...interesting development occur, 'lightly' jabbed him in the ribs to wake him.

Getting the desired effect, Sirius awoke with a start and in the process flung the jar of marmalade at the unsuspecting couple across from him. After the flinging had occurred he gaped…rather openly, at Remus and Nicole who had apparently been sharing a 'romantic, new couple' moment, with one hand still in the air from when he had thrown the poor jar.

By this point both James and Lily couldn't help but burst out laughing and were holding onto each other so as not to fall onto the floor.

Remus was halfway across the table, with Nicole weakly grabbing onto the tail of his shirt, to kill Sirius who was now doing a kind of karate kick while trying to climb under the bench.

It looked ridiculous to say the least.

This was the scene that everyone else in the school was watching when a young girl with wind swept brown hair, dirt covered jeans, baggy faded purple A&N t-shirt, grass covered boots, and the brightest shining eyes anyone had seen in awhile came prancing through the door.

The population of the Great Hall gave her a quick glance before quickly returning to the hilarious event of Nicole grabbing the bowl of oatmeal to roll like a bowling ball under the table where Sirius was supposedly 'hiding'.

The girl briskly headed toward the group of teens and got as close as two feet behind Remus who was picking up a piece of toast to use as a boomerang before placing her hands on her hips and cocking her head to the side.

James and Lily on the other side of the table had stopped laughing and instead trained their eyes on the puzzled looking Gryffindor.

She lightly tapped Remus on the shoulder mid throw and cleared her throat slightly. He froze and turned to see who had stopped his attack. When he saw her he turned his glare into a peer of shock.

The girl took the piece of toast from his hand and then carefully looked him over. As she did a kind of semi circle around him to where she was half between him and Nicole who had stopped kicking a whining Sirius and just stared at the girl with a smirk and cocked eyebrow.

Sarah gently leaned over and wiped the piece of toast on Nicole's arm where a particularly large piece of jelly (she refused to call it marmalade) had landed and then took a slow bite. With a small smile adorning her surprisingly cheery face she said, "Ya know…your arm tastes pretty good Nicole. Hahaha"

Sirius had by now peeped out from under the table and had, to his misfortune, the bowl Nicole had thrown, on his head. "Hahaha, well Remus I wonder if you taste better?"

"Well trust me Padfoot if anyone's gonna find out its NOT going to be YOU!" He playfully yelled to his friend.

"I don't know Remus. We all know how much of a _dog_ he is." James joked from the bench with a giggling Lily almost on his lap from their earlier laugh attack.

They all spent the rest of breakfast making edible jokes about the new couple and every now and then having one of them casually glance at Sarah to just check that her smile was genuine and her laugh true…they couldn't find a fault.

Right before they all decided to go out and enjoy the wonderful weather before heading up to do their horrid school work Sarah stole a quick glance towards the almost vacant staff table.

Dumbledore was staring right back at her with a small smirk that she recognized all too well. It was the same one she had when she walked into the room that morning…it was accepting, and slightly defiant…until the end.

**A/N HOLY CRAP!!! This took me QUITE awhile. I've had half of this written forever but I just couldn't get the right pieces to fit for the chapter to end the way I wanted it to but I FINALLY DID IT!! **_**(yay haha)**_** I have NO idea when the next one will be out. I thank you guys again who have been reviewing all this time and actually do take the time to do it…honestly…two minutes max…really people hahaha I don't know if I got the desired effect with the whole 'letting go' part. I was hoping I would confuse you guys with thinking she was gonna kill herself but not sure if I got that across right :-/ so tell me if you thought so by REVIEWING!!!**

**Anywho…here are some songs for this chapter **_**(I love these . )**_

**I'm not ok (I promise) – MCR **_**(for the part where they try and convince Sarah to let them go with her into the pensive)**_

**Runaway – Cartel (**_**for when Sarah is telling Dumbledore how she feels and talking to the group.)**_

**Extraordinary – Liz Phair **_**([chorus for when she's flying really fast across the school)**_

**Champagne Supernova - Oasis **_**(when she watches the sunrise and ponders)**_

**New Soul – Yael Naim **_**(when she decides to 'be done with it')**_

**The Pretender – Foo Fighters **_**([chorus as she's falling)**_

**Nine in the Afternoon – **_**(the whole marmalade/jelly scene)**_

**1234 – Feist **_**(for when she walks up to the group and takes the toast)**_


End file.
